NEW YORK – Cytovale announced on Wednesday that it has raised $84 million in a Series C funding round that will support expanded commercialization of the firm's 10-minute sepsis test.
Investors for the round included Norwest Venture Partners, Sands Capital, and Global Health Investment. The firm said the financing is from new and existing investors as well as the conversion of bridge notes.
The San Francisco-based startup said it will use the proceeds to expand use of its IntelliSep prognostic blood-based test to more hospital emergency departments and healthcare systems in the US. Cytovale secured US Food and Drug Administration 510(k) marketing clearance for the test in December and announced in April it had launched the test at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Cytovale officials said this summer that the company planned for an expanded commercial launch of the test.
"Our flagship diagnostic tool, IntelliSep, with a blood-to-answer time frame of under 10 minutes, helps healthcare providers recognize sepsis early and make critical, time-sensitive clinical decisions," Cytovale CEO Ajay Shah said in a statement. "With the support of our investors, we are now able to expand efforts to get our tool in the hands of more providers so they can address the potential deadly outcomes patients currently face."
The test uses high-speed imaging to assess cellular host response through deformability cytometry of leukocyte biophysical properties. The test is designed for use in patients who present with signs of sepsis or who physicians suspect may have infections, and the results are used to generate a report that stratifies patients according to their risk of developing sepsis.