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Xagenic Closes Series B Round Raising $23.8M

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Decentralized molecular diagnostics firm Xagenic today announced the second closing of its Series B financing round, bringing in a total of C$25.5 million (US$23.8 million).

The financing amount includes C$20 million raised late last year, Xagenic Founder and Chief Technology Officer Shana Kelley told GenomeWeb Daily News in an email. She added that the proceeds will be used to advance the company's testing platform and perform clinical studies of the first diagnostic product. Investors in the Series B round included Domain Associates, CTI Life Sciences Fund, BDC Capital, and the Ontario Emerging Technologies Fund.

The company raised C$10 million in a Series A round in early 2012.

Xagenic is headquartered in Toronto and is developing a molecular diagnostics platform for use in settings such as doctors' offices and clinics. Its core technology is the Amplified Redox Assay, or AuRA, which uses nanostructured microelectrodes for rapid enzyme-free detection of nucleic acids from clinical specimens without the need for sample extraction.

"Our enzyme-free molecular diagnostic platform will provide significant advantages in patient care by bringing nucleic acid amplification test-like performance to the physician office with a testing time of 20 minutes," Kelley said in a statement.

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