NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Ayoxxa Biosystems announced today that it has netted €2.6 million ($3.4 million) in a Series A financing round.
The Cologne, Germany-based firm said it will use the proceeds to further develop and scale-up production of in situ encoded bead-based arrays that allow the simultaneous measurement of multiple proteins from small amounts of sample material.
CEO Andreas Schmidt said in a statement that the funding provides Ayoxxa with the resources to "significantly accelerate the scale-up of production" of its arrays ahead of commercialization.
Ayoxxa was founded as a spin-off of the National University of Singapore in 2010 and established its headquarters in Cologne earlier this year. The firm maintains an office in Singapore.
Its Series A investors included Wellington Partners Venture Capital, NRW.BANK, HTGF - High-Tech-Gründerfonds, as well as private investors Rainer Christine and Gregor Siebenkotten, both formerly executive board members and co-founders of Amaxa Biosystems.
Following the fundraising, Ayoxxa's board of directors consists of Chairman Rainer Christine; board members Regina Hodits and Matthias Dill from Wellington Partners, and Aristotelis Nastos from NRW.BANK; and board observers Lukas Günther from Wellington Partners and Florian Stinauer from NRW.BANK.
Hodits said in a statement that Ayoxxa's arrays have the potential to become the "new standard" for the analysis of multiple protein-protein interactions in limited sample volumes. She said that Ayoxxa will address a research market worth "hundreds of millions of dollars" and over the longer term will "reach into pharmaceutical screening and ultimately diagnostics."