Investment will help fuel international partnerships, scale production of its early autism diagnostic aid test - StrandDx™ASD - which is expected to become available to the public in 2024
NORTH BRUNSWICK, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--LinusBio, a leader in precision exposome sequencing, and Y.A.C. Holdings, a Japanese multinational, today announced a partnership with a 1 Billion Yen investment by Y.A.C. in LinusBio. The partnership is part of a series A2 funding round, in which the company raised an additional $8 million, bringing the total funding raised by LinusBio to over $25.5M in the last 18 months.
LinusBio's post-money valuation increased by 35% through this round as the company is on track to deliver revenue growth of over 300% year-over-year. LinusBio plans to leverage the funding to extend international partnerships and scale up production of its early autism diagnostic aid test - StrandDx™ASD - in a newly opened facility in North Brunswick, New Jersey.
Y.A.C. Holdings is a Japan-based company specializing in developing, designing, and manufacturing mechatronics-related products. Both companies will collaborate on hardware innovation to scale LinusBio's testing volume, creating an innovation engine in robotics, laboratory automation, and precision exposome medicine. Existing investors including Bow Capital, and the David Bellet family office have shown their continued confidence in the company by investing in the current round as well.
LinusBio's proprietary platform introduces novel precision exposome biomarkers that can facilitate discovery across various health conditions - from autism to gastrointestinal disorders to ALS to renal disease and cancers, utilizing a single strand of hair. LinusBio's first diagnosis aid, StrandDx™ASD, can assess the likelihood of autism at birth with 80% to 90% accuracy and assist with personalized treatment decisions. The test has been granted an FDA Breakthrough Designation and is on track to become available to the public as a laboratory developed test (LDT) by the first half of 2024.
“The technology developed by LinusBio has the potential to revolutionize medical testing in Japan and Asia overall, and Y.A.C. Holdings shares the vision to positively impact people’s lives. It is an immense opportunity for both companies,” said Mr. Takefumi Momose, Chairman, Founder and President of Y.A.C Holdings.
"The additional funding demonstrates our investors' confidence in LinusBio's vision - to transform the way complex health conditions are diagnosed and treated," says Dr. Manish Arora, Co-Founder and CEO. "I would like to thank Mr. Momose and Y.A.C. Holdings for leading this round and welcome them to our family. Our partnership will facilitate advancements on two fronts: high-scale automation of our lab output and access to Asian medical markets."
About LinusBio
LinusBio (Linus Biotechnology Inc.) is a patient-centric, breakthrough science precision exposome medicine company headquartered in New York, NY. The Company’s program pipeline comprises precision exposome medicine biomarkers and target discovery across disease domains for which historically no molecular endpoints have been available in medical practice or for clinical trials, including CNS (autism spectrum disorder, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), gastroenterology (inflammatory bowel disease), renal disease and oncology. For more information, visit www.linusbio.com.
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