NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Mass spectrometer firm 908 Devices has raised $7 million with an eye toward a total of $8 million in funding, according to a document filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday by the Boston-based firm.
A 908 Devices spokesperson declined to identify the investors or say how proceeds would be used. In 2012, the company raised $8.1 million in a Series A round.
908 Devices was founded last year and is developing a hand-held mass spec that uses molecular traps "a thousand times smaller than those in conventional mass spectrometers," the company said on its website. It calls its technology High Pressure Mass Spectrometry, or HPMS.
While the initial market being targeted by the firm is the military and security sector, a company executive told GenomeWeb Daily News that HPMS is a "broad platform with a multibillion dollar market that includes life science," adding that among the markets that 908 Devices' technology could address are metabolomics and food safety testing.
The firm has developed an instrument that weighs about three pounds "and runs for extended periods from a lithium-ion battery." That compares to "today's best field portable … mass spectrometers that are fragile, large, and weigh upward of 35 pounds."
In April, 908 Devices and In-Q-Tel announced a partnership to develop new mass spec analyzers. The technology is funded in part by the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate, an IQT customer agency.