NEW YORK – Skin-based diagnostic testing company CND Life Sciences announced on Thursday that it has closed a $4.5 million Series Seed 3 equity financing round, bringing its total seed financing to $12.5 million.
Multiple existing investors and new investors participated in the round, and Top Corner Capital provided a concurrent financing vehicle, the company said in a statement. The funding from the follow-on round will be used to accelerate commercialization of the firm's Syn-One test, which identifies abnormal alpha-synuclein aggregation via skin biopsy.
The Syn-One test was launched in 2019, and Scottsdale, Arizona-based CND has about 700 neurologist clinician customers, as well as multiple collaborations with biopharmaceutical customers, the firm said. The assay uses technology licensed from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center to detect, visualize, and quantify phosphorylated alpha-synuclein located in cutaneous nerves. The test can help diagnose neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's disease, dementia with Lewy bodies, multiple system atrophy, and peripheral neuropathies.
"Proceeds from the Seed 3 round, including the helpful add-on of financing from Top Corner Capital, will facilitate our continued development and expansion while positioning us for wide adoption by neurologists and biopharmaceutical companies alike," CND CEO Rick Morello said in a statement.
The firm previously closed a $2.4 million seed financing round in 2021 and received a $2.4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health in 2020 to support the clinical development of the test. Last month, the company announced it signed a licensing agreement with Beth Israel, giving CND access to technologies important for the Syn-One test.