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Day Zero Diagnostics Closes $21M VC Financing Round

NEW YORK – Infectious disease genomic testing company Day Zero Diagnostics said Wednesday it has closed a $21 million venture equity financing round.

The Boston-based firm said it would use the funds to complete the product engineering phase of its diagnostic development as well as to launch clinical lab services.

The round was led by Sands Capital, with significant contributions from new investors such as Becton Dickinson, Panacea Venture, and Hongkou Capital. Existing investors including Triventures and Golden Seeds also participated in the round.

As part of the financing, BD's president of integrated diagnostic solutions, Brooke Story, will join Day Zero's board of directors as an observer. "We believe that genome sequencing will play an important role in infectious disease diagnostics in the future, and the DZD technologies have the potential to play a leading role in that evolution," she said in a statement.

The new funding brings the company's total raised to date to over $33 million in venture capital financing and more than $10 million in non-dilutive funding.

Day Zero has been developing sequencing-based diagnostic technologies that can identify both the species and the antibiotic resistance profile of a bacterial pathogen within hours. In 2020, the company received a $300,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health to further develop its nanopore sequencing-based technology for the analysis of healthcare-associated infection outbreaks.

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