Michigan Accelerator Fund I said this week that it has made a $750,000 Series A-1 investment in Swift Biosciences.
To date, Swift has launched a product suite called myT Primers, which enable detection of mutated cells related to melanoma with extreme sensitivity. This opens the door for test specimens to be collected as blood samples instead of tissue, which may allow for earlier detection, the company said.
Its first product in this area was a BRAF mutation-detection assay, which the company introduced last February parallel to announcing it had raised $2.4 million in private financing as a follow on to a $3 million Series A financing completed in August 2010 (PCR Insider, 2/23/2012).
In 2013, Swift will launch a new line of products focused on genome sequencing, the company said.
MAF‐1 now joins Houston‐based Mercury Fund as Swift’s only institutional investors. The total invested in Swift to date is $6.15 million. MAF-I also said that Swift is the seventh company it has funded since the fund's inception in 2010, and the first investment since the fund closed at $15.5 million in August 2012.