Investment Update:West Fountain invested Round E of Visby Medical
2022.06.30
In February 2022, West Fountain Global Fund LP ("West Fountain"), a parallel fund outside of China, completed its Series E investment into Visby Medical, Inc. ("Visby Medical") a leading medical diagnostic company based in the United States. The Series E financing was led by Ping An Voyager Partners, and included strong follow-on investors, including HOOPP and Lightrock. Other investors in Visby Medical include John Doerr, Cedars Sinai Medical Center, ND Capital, Artiman Ventures, Pitango Venture, Blue Water Life Science Advisors and J Ventures. The funding will accelerate the development of a revolutionary, single-use, at-home rapid PCR diagnostic technology.
Visby Medical was founded in 2012 by Dr. Adam de la Zerda, a professor at the Stanford University School of Pharmacy. Visby Medical developed and commercialized the world's first instrument-free, disposable polymerase chain reaction (“PCR”) infection test. Only the size of the palm of your hand, the product was originally developed for sexually transmitted infections and provides accurate results for gonorrhea, chlamydia and trichomonas infections in 28 minutes by testing swabs collected by patients themselves, dramatically improving the efficiency of treatment. This product has received FDA approval and is being used in clinical laboratory settings (CLIA-exempt scenarios) in the U.S., such as hospital emergency rooms and women's health clinics. In 2019, as the corona virus epidemic approached, the Company moved quickly and developed a PCR corona virus testing platform and received EUA approval from the FDA, making a significant contribution to fight against the global corona virus epidemic. The company is currently accelerating the introduction of accurate and compact PCR diagnostic testing products to medical institutions and eventually to receive FDA approvals for the distribution of its testing products for patients to use in the privacy of their own homes.
As mentioned, Visby Medical has received a lot of attention from well-known investors and VCs, attracting continued support from John Doerr, who is widely considered by many as the "King of Venture Capital" and an early investor into Google, Amazon and Twitter; Artiman Ventures;, Pitango Ventures and other significant investment institutions. The financing will be used to expand the production scale, further grow its product lines to include respiratory health tests and anti-microbial tests, bringing PCR diagnostic testing technology to millions of homes worldwide.
Founder and CEO, Dr. Adam de la Zerda states that “At Visby Medical, we are revolutionizing patient care by developing a diagnostic method that allows healthcare professionals to detect any infection anywhere, anytime. Our investors have shown great confidence in Visby Medical's innovative technology and mission, especially during today's capital market slowdown. The funding will allow us to further our goal of providing the world's first instrument-free, handheld, disposable PCR platform for accurate, rapid infection testing for any patient who needs it”.
West Fountain has invested early and is consistently bullish on the telemedicine markets. West Fountain believes that Visby Medical's revolutionary PCR diagnostic platform will revolutionize existing patient care and become a key link in the distributed telemedicine system, and look forward to Visby Medical growing into an industry leader in medical diagnostics for the benefit of patients worldwide.