NEW YORK – Chinese infectious disease startup Visions Medical said on Thursday it recently closed a Series B financing round that raised RMB200 million ($28.8 million).
The round was led by CDH Investments with contributions from CICC Capital, the Guangzhou-based firm said. So far, Visions Medical has raised nearly $50 million, including a $14 million Series A round last year.
The company said the funds will be used for research and development to improve its infectious disease diagnostics; to build a national clinical laboratory network to reduce testing turnaround time; to seek regulatory approval for its clinical metagenomic assays for pathogen detection; and to strengthen its marketing and sales network. Vision Medicals has also been developing a CRISPR-based diagnostic test for tuberculosis to be used at the point of care.
In March the firm received CE-IVD marking for its SARS-CoV-2 Clinical Sequencing assay, which uses next-generation sequencing. It also published a preprint earlier this year on a CRISPR-based SARS-CoV-2 diagnostic test, which is different from the CE-marked test.