Chipcare to compute $18.8m series B

Chipcare, a diagnostics spinout of Toronto University, is seeking $18.8m for its series B round and has secured an initial $2.8m from unnamed entities already.

Life sciences investment bank Biotech Alliances International is serving as lead investment banker for the round.

Founded in 2009, Chipcare has developed a point-of-care diagnostic device dubbed Polvalent Analyzer that offers lab-quality results within 15 minutes. The device weighs less than two kilograms.

The money will help Chipcare bring the device to market.

The spinout previously raised $5m in a series A round in March 2015 led by Puffin Partners. Other investors included commercialisation firm Mars Innovation, Maple Leaf Angels, Winfield Venture Group, Epic Capital and assorted angel investors.

Chipcare earlier raised a total of $3.25m in seed capital from a consortium led by Grand Challenges Canada, funded by the government of Canada. The seed round also included Toronto University’s Connaught Seed Fund and Mars Innovation.

The seed round further attracted the Canada government-owned National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program and the Scientific Research and Experimental Development Tax Incentive Program, as well as the Ontario government’s Ontario Centres of Excellence, the Mars Discovery District and VentureLab-Genesis.

James Fraser, chief executive of Chipcare, said: “Over half of the world lives more than a day away from a central laboratory, making it difficult to access the diagnostic tests that are essential to providing medical treatment.

“As part of the global commitment to eliminate HIV as a global health emergency, our initial assays respond to the World Health Organization’s call for improved point-of-care diagnostics for HIV.”