NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Episona announced today that it has raised approximately $4 million in seed financing to support the expansion of its first commercial product, Seed — an epigenetic test for male infertility and embryo quality.
Launched in October 2016, Seed uses Illumina microarrays to examine methylation at more than 480,000 regions of sperm DNA with a link to fertility. The company assigns a relative risk for each abnormally methylated location concerning either male factor infertility or poor embryo development.
According to Episona, the newly raised funds will help it expand its commercial footprint across North America from what is currently about two dozen fertility clinics in 12 states and Canada. More specifically, the company said it hopes to increase its sales and marketing force and support further technology development.
Participating in the funding round were several members of the Pasadena Angels, Episona said. The financing also included approximately $1.35 million in convertible notes.
"We have been encouraged by the enthusiastic response from both patients and clinicians since we launched Seed. While still in the early stages of commercialization, Seed has demonstrated clear benefits, particularly with regards to providing information not generated by current semen analyses, such as the chances of sperm making a healthy embryo," Episona CEO Alan Horsager said in a statement.