Abionic raises CHF 20 million in financing
scroll south
Great news for our Venture Leaders alumnus and TOP 100 Swiss Startups in 2011-2015. Abionic announced today closing a CHF 20 million series C financing round from renowned industry experts and business angels.. A clinical study will start in April.
The EPFL spin-off develops rapid diagnostic solutions such as the abioSCOPE, a rapid diagnostic platform for clinical laboratories allowing healthcare professionals to make diagnosis from a single drop of a patient’s blood. Possible applications are numerous: rapid tests for allergies, iron deficiency diseases and sepsis. Following the successful round, the startup will use the proceeds to extend its portfolio of Point-of-Care IVD tests for critical care and emergency medicine. It will launch in April a multinational sepsis impact study of its Pancreatic Stone Protein (PSP) test, capable of showing an indication of sepsis within 5 minutes. The study will evaluate the efficacy of the new technology as a sepsis diagnosis and management tool for clinicians among 300 patients in 14 ICU cities in Switzerland, Italy, France and the UK.Founded in 2010, Abionic developed its nanotechnology within the EPFL and is now based at the Biopôle in Lausanne. Recently, it obtained registration of its first rapid allergy tests in the United States by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The company is continuously developing additional rapid tests, e.g. for allergy, asthma and thrombosis. During the early stages of its development, the startup travelled to the United States in 2010 with the Venture Leaders program, and won CHF 130,000 in pre-seed funding with Venture Kick. Between 2011 and 2015, it was also among the TOP 100 Swiss Startups. Dr. Nicolas Durand, CEO of Abionic explained "Thanks to Venturelab trainings, Abionic started with the right foot. With Venture Kick, the company obtained precious early stage funding allowing us to demonstrate the potential of our technology. Now Abionic is entering into its « teenager » phase and is very proud to be recognized as one of the Venturelab-made companies!"
The round was led by Pierangelo Bottinelli, Chairman of Symphony International Holdings Limited, and included Philippe Glatz (Chairman of two private hospitals), Peter Brabeck-Letmathe (former CEO and Chairman of Nestlé), Arkady Volozh (Co-Founder and CEO of Yandex), Jean-Bernard and Nelson Dumas (Owners of Dumas Construction), Investiere AG and Zürcher Kantonalbank.