NEW YORK (360Dx) – Sight Diagnostics said on Thursday that it has raised $27.8 million in Series C funding that it will use to continue the global expansion of its artificial intelligence-based point-of-care blood diagnostics system, called OLO.
Sight Diagnostics said it will also use the funding to support its regulatory efforts in the US and to expand its menu of diagnostic tests. Company CTO Sarah Levy said in a statement that the new financing will allow it to expand R&D activities to develop applications beyond complete blood counts, currently the main use for OLO.
Longliv Ventures, a member of the CK Hutchison Group, a multinational conglomerate, led the funding round. Jack Nicklaus II, son of the golfer and a healthcare philanthropist and board member of the Nicklaus Children’s Health Care Foundation; Steven Esrick, a healthcare investor; and an undisclosed medical equipment manufacturer also participated in the Series C round, along with existing investors OurCrowd, Go Capital, and New Alliance Capital.
With OLO, patients receive test results within minutes at the point-of-care using blood collected from a fingerprick, Sight Diagnostics said. Its diagnostic system, launched in 2018, leverages digital fluorescent microscopy and machine-learning algorithms to capture and analyze images of the drawn blood.
Sight Diagnostics deployed the platform in African countries and India in 2014 for detection of malaria. The firm said it has since launched the platform to detect complete blood counts with a level of accuracy and breadth of information matching that of high-end central-lab analyzers.
The firm recently concluded clinical trials in the US at Boston Children’s Hospital and Columbia University Irving Medical Center to study OLO’s clinical performance, and it is pursuing 510(k) clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration for use in qualified US laboratories, as well as a CLIA waiver to allow for use at the point-of-care.