US-based medical device company Nuclein has secured $14m in a Series B funding round to commercialise its hand-held PCR platform.
The financing round was led by Trinity Private Equity Group (TPEG), a Southlake, Texas-based private equity firm.
With the new investment, TPEG joins other early Nuclein investors, including board members Dr. William Cunningham, former president of the University of Texas at Austin, Dr. John Butler, former director of IC2, and David Shockley, CEO of International Biophysics Corporation.
Other Nuclein investors include advisory board members Joe Aragona, co-founder and general partner of Austin Ventures, Jason Dorsey, president of the Center for Generational Kinetics, and Alan Richey, a senior vice president for Dell Technologies.
The company designed its hand-held PCR platform as a disposable, all-in-one, self-testing device for the detection of infectious diseases.
TPEG managing partner and Nuclein board member Sanjay Chandra said: “Trinity is pleased to lead the $14 million Series B equity round for the Company.
“This round supports our efforts to gain necessary regulatory authorisation – and then take the product to market and provide the infrastructure to ramp up manufacturing and distribution.
“We are excited to partner with Nuclein as it embarks on delivering a quick and easy PCR test that will provide valuable data for healthcare professionals, patients, organisations, and companies around the world to make better decisions.”
Nuclein said that its device runs gold-standard, real-time PCR, eliminating the need for users to mail in a sample, and technical expertise to operate.
The device delivers battery-powered, sample-to-answer results from saliva sample within one hour.
Designed to detect any infectious disease target, Nuclein is currently focused on using its technology platform to detect Covid-19.
Established in 2017, Nuclein raised around $20m investment to date and intends to apply with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA) for its Covid-19 testing device.
The company currently employs about 30 scientists, engineers, and other professionals, and looking to hire additional molecular biologists, engineers, and manufacturing staff.
Nuclein co-founder CEO Alan Blake said: “Our vision is to enable simple, affordable, rapid, and accurate disease testing for everyone. We are excited to close this funding round to support advancement of our innovative technology.”
Nuclein president and co-founder Richard Crockett said: “The Nuclein platform makes PCR diagnostics as easy as pushing a button. We are excited to work with Trinity as we bring this true sample-to-result technology to market.”
