Skip to main content
Premium Trial:

Request an Annual Quote

Ceres Closes on Additional $5.5M in Series A Funding

NEW YORK (360Dx) – Ceres Nanosciences said on Thursday it has closed on an additional $5.5 million in Series A funding, bringing the round's total to $8.5 million.

The company said it will use the funds to further development of its Nanotrap Lyme Antigen Test System for detecting Lyme disease, as well as development of new applications for its Nanotrap technology.

A portion of the funds came from GreyBird Ventures, which opened Ceres' Series A round last year with a $3 million investment and agreed to provide additional funds upon the achievement of certain product development milestones that Ceres has now hit. The company also received investments from the Bay Area Lyme Foundation, Pactolus Ventures, and the University of Virginia LVG Seed Fund.

"Over the past year, our team has sought out investors who can accelerate our growth with their business expertise and strategic advice," Ceres CEO Ross Dunlap said in a statement. "These new investors have decades of experience in the life science industry and are closely aligned with Ceres' mission of delivering a powerful technology to the market to benefit patients globally."

Ceres' Nanotrap technology uses hydrogel nanoparticles functionalized with internal affinity baits to enrich target analytes for downstream analysis. The system uses chemical dyes to bind analytes of interest, concentrating them inside the nanoparticles and protecting them from enzymatic degradation, thereby improving the sensitivity of the ultimate clinical detection method — for instance, ELISA or mass spectrometry.

The Lyme test is Ceres' lead product. The company said this week that it plans to submit the test to the US Food and Drug Administration next year.