NEW YORK – Swiss liquid biopsy company Hedera Dx said on Wednesday that it has raised €14 million ($13.9 million) in seed funding, which it intends to use to launch a new blood-based circulating cancer DNA test this fall.
The financing round was led by Adam Ghobarah, founder of Top Harvest Capital and former longtime executive at Google and Google Ventures. Inventure, Air Street Capital, Amino Collective, and GRIDS Capital also participated in the funding.
Founded last year, Hedera intends to market a clinically actionable liquid biopsy product that hospital labs can run in house, streamlining the process of finding an appropriate approved therapy for each cancer patient.
The firm's disseminated strategy is intended to address hurdles that have limited the adoption of liquid biopsy testing. The company's product combines an in-house sequencing assay and an end-to-end software, Hedera Prime, that is registered as an IVD medical device. After onboarding, laboratories can start running liquid biopsies with a streamlined workflow from sample processing through analytics, reporting, and therapy options.
Details on the content of its liquid biopsy sequencing panel were not immediately available.
According to Hedera, the newly announced funding will support both its commercial launch and the first phase of a real-world evidence clinical testing program, which will allow it to create a database reflecting real-world usage of liquid biopsy and related cancer patient outcomes.