NEW YORK – Alamar Biosciences said Monday that it is raising $128 million in an oversubscribed Series C funding round.
The company said it plans to use the funds to accelerate commercialization of its NULISA proteomic technology.
The round is closing in two stages, an initial $100 million close that took place Monday and an additional $28 million close that is expected to occur in the next 30 days. The financing was led by Sands Capital and included participation from new and existing investors.
With the funding, Fremont, California-based Alamar has raised nearly $250 million in total.
The company last month launched its first product, the Argo HT proteomics system. It also launched its NULISAseq Inflammation Panel 250, an assay panel for the Argo HT that measures 250 proteins linked to immune response.
The NULISA system is based on proximity ligation assay technology in which antibody pairs linked to barcoded DNA strands are used to detect protein targets. Alamar has developed a series of capture and washing steps that increase the assay's signal-to-noise ratio compared to traditional PLA.
Concurrent with the financing, Ian Ratcliffe, executive managing partner of Sands Capital, has joined Alamar's board of directors.
"Proteomics represents a dynamic and fast-growing market with significant opportunity for disruption as new platforms providing both higher sensitivity and multiplex capability are needed to accelerate proteomics research and translation," Ratcliffe said in a statement. "The enthusiasm we have seen from early customers makes us believe that Alamar is poised to become a leader in the evolving proteomics space."
"Our proprietary NULISA technology has demonstrated superior performance and a unique combination of capabilities that will enable our customers to accelerate biomarker discovery and the development of noninvasive tests for diseases with high unmet need," Yuling Luo, founder, chairman, and CEO of Alamar, said in a statement. "With this funding, we are now well positioned to power precision proteomics through accelerated commercialization."