NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – RNA-based testing firm HTG Molecular Diagnostics today said it has initially closed its Series E preferred stock offering.
Through a spokesperson, HTG and its investors declined to disclose the amount of the Series E round. Existing investors Novo Ventures, SROne, Merck Capital Ventures, and Fletcher Spaght participated in the round.
The Tucson, Ariz.-based firm said the funds will go toward product commercialization and development. HTG CEO TJ Johnson added in a statement that proceeds will be used to support the doubling of the firm's US commercial team and a European launch of the firm's automated RNA analysis platform called the HTG Edge System, including CE-IVD status in the current quarter.
The spokesperson said HTG has contracted with a European distributor to place the system in the EU. A system has been placed in France, she said, and the company will look to expand placements in 2014.
The Series E financing also will be used to build out HTG's test menu, support the company's first US Food and Drug Administration submission, and commercialization of its first application for targeted sequencing preparation on the HTG Edge System.
An HTG official told BioArray News in July that it planned to file the system with regulators in the US, Europe, and Canada by the end of 2013.