NEW YORK – LevitasBio, a Stanford spinout commercializing a cell purification and separation technology based on magnetic levitation, said on Wednesday that it has raised $18 million in a Series B financing round.
Thalys Medical Group led the round, joined by Series A lead investor Decheng Capital.
LevitasBio also said it would form a China-based joint venture with Thalys to further develop, manufacture, and distribute the firm's technology in that country.
"We could not be more thrilled to be partnering with Thalys. They have the global footprint in medical research, the supply chain expertise, and the customer distribution channels to radically accelerate our growth," LevitasBio CEO Martin Pieprzyk said in a statement.
Founded in 2017 and based in Menlo Park, California, LevitasBio launched its cell separation platform last year. It raised $8 million in Series A funding in 2018.
"The investment makes part of our global strategy to develop our innovation portfolio in the biotech and diagnostics segment, which has huge application potential and business opportunities," Thalys executive VP Zheng "James" Wang said in a statement. "LevitasBio is a natural fit for our portfolio of medical venture investments, and we are so excited to partner with LevitasBio to build the single-cell analysis powerhouse for China through our joint venture."
Over the last year, Decheng Capital led Mammoth Biosciences' $45 million Series B round and also participated in Sema4's $121 million Series C round and Cue Health's $100 million Series C round.