Sudbury medical technology company, that’s looking to commercialize a home blood testing kit, has secured $3.8 million from its leading investor in the United Kingdom.
Verv Technologies announced this week of the seed round funding from Randox Laboratories, a globally recognized biotechnology and laboratory services leader.
Established in 2012, Verv’s founder president Jeff Sutton hatched the idea of a consumer-oriented, disposable blood testing kit more than a decade ago and has devoted his efforts toward developing this technology, called the Verv Vi.
To conduct a blood test, a user places a drop of blood onto a disposable test strip, which is then inserted into the Vi.
Verv’s technology separates the plasma from whole blood, conducts an analysis, and delivers the results via an app to your smartphone just 15 minutes later. Users can test for anything from vitamin D to glucose to cholesterol to C-reactive proteins.
Randox is considered a global leader in in-vitro diagnostics. The firm develops diagnostic solutions for hospitals, clinical, research and molecular labs, food testing and elsewhere that’s used in more than 145 countries.
“We are thrilled to have Randox as a major investor in Verv,” said Sutton in a news release, “to help propel us to commercial readiness and the opportunity to work with the original Founder and Managing Director of Randox, Dr. Peter Fitzgerald, who will join Verv’s board of directors. We aim to create great value for health-conscious consumers.
“Verv will use the investment to accelerate the completion of commercial products, expand the suite of tests for consumers, enhance our exceptional team, and complete regulatory processes over the next year.”
Dr. Peter Fitzgerald, head of Randox Laboratories, said: Randox has a global lens on the development of new technologies. We have a shared vision and belief in Verv’s unique, highly differentiated microfluidics approach to creating scalable, high-quality, low-cost blood testing technology for healthcare consumers. We anticipate a great journey ahead, in partnership with Verv.”
