NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Roka Bioscience said after the close of the market on Friday that it has raised $27.5 million toward a $47.5 million Series D financing round.
It closed on $27.5 million of the round in December and said it expects to close on the remaining $20 million later this year. Proceeds will go toward commercialization of its Atlas System and ongoing assay development.
Aisling Capital, a new investor, participated in the round, along with existing investors OrbiMed Advisors, New Enterprise Associates, and TPG Biotech.
Based in Warren NJ, Roka is a spinout of Gen-Probe that was formed in 2009. Gen-Probe continues to be an investor in Roka, though it was not named as a participant in the Series D round.
In June, Roka raised $20 million in a Series C round. Upon completion of the Series D round, it will have raised a total of $104.7 million, it said.
The Atlas System is a fully automated molecular platform for detecting food pathogens in food and environmental samples and is capable of processing more than 300 samples in eight hours. The initial menu for the system will be the Roka Listeria and Salmonella Detection Assays with other assays in development.
In conjunction with the financing, Josh Bilenker, a partner at Aisling, is joining Roka's board.