NEW YORK – Genetics and diagnostic health testing company Prenetics said on Thursday that it has raised $15 million in a funding round led by Apis Insurtech Fund I, a venture fund managed by Apis Partners.
Existing investor Alibaba Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund and other investors also participated in the round. Prenetics said it has now raised more than $60 million since its inception in 2014. It will use the new funding for R&D, with a specific focus on further advancing COVID-19 testing technologies.
Prenetics, which operates in 10 countries, has launched an initiative called Project Screen by Circle, which is aimed at making COVID-19 testing easy, safe, and accurate. The company plans to launch a rapid SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid test in the fourth quarter that will return results in 15 to 30 minutes, will be highly scalable, have low cost, not require a laboratory, and enable frequent testing.
Prenetics has also been selected by Pure Health, the largest laboratory network in the United Arab Emirates, to test airline passengers flying into the UAE from Hong Kong, in accordance with the UAE's requirement for travelers to prove they are not infected with COVID-19. The company said it has performed more than 300,000 RT-PCR COVID-19 tests in Hong Kong and in the UK, and that its Hong Kong laboratory can process more than 20,000 RT-PCR tests daily.
"Rapid, accurate, and frequent [COVID-19] testing could be one of our most important interventions as fall approaches to prevent large outbreaks" Prenetics Cofounder and Group CEO Danny Yeung said in a statement.