Baltimore's Capsulomics has named a biotech veteran as chief financial officer as the startup prepares to enter its next stage of growth.
Bill Stevens joins Capsulomics after serving in the same role for the last two and a half years at Delfi Diagnostics, which raised $100 million in a Series A round of funding last year. Stevens was also CFO at Personal Genome Diagnostics, or PGDx, for almost nine years until 2019. PGDx was acquired earlier this year by Laboratory Corp., of America Holdings, better known as Labcorp, in a deal that could pay up to $575 million.
Like Delfi and PGDx, Capsulomics is an early detection cancer diagnostics company. The company, founded in 2019, has developed a single test to detect Barrett’s esophagus (BE), esophageal cancer and adenocarcinoma (a type of cancer that starts in mucus-producing glands).
Stevens said he was attracted to Capsulomics because of the appeal of working for "an organization that can change lives on an international basis."
"When I think of cancer and cancer no longer being a death sentence, I look at these organizations that are trying to find it from early detection," said Stevens, a 12-year cancer survivor himself.
Stevens said he was also excited about the opportunity because of the chance to work with CEO Daniel Lunz, who he described as "full of energy," and because he enjoys the culture of a startup company.
"Taking something from nothing and making it into something is an incredible process," Stevens said.
Stevens will be busy in his first few months as CFO. He said the company plans to raise between $3 million and $3.5 million in a seed funding round this year to help bring its test to market. Capsulomics is on path this year to have a lab federally certified under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments and also hopes to receive a "breakthrough device" designation from the Food and Drug Administration.
"We're taking an aggressive approach to getting to market," Stevens said. "We will be revenue-generating by the end of this year. We have gotten this far with limited diluted funds. It's mostly been non-diluted in grants. We've been really efficient with capital and we'll continue to do so as we progress through our plan."
Capsulomics has previously received funding from the Maryland Technology Development Corp., or TEDCO. In 2020, the company initiated a research partnership with Johns Hopkins University funded by a five-year, $3.7 million grant from the National Institutes of Health.
The company also plans to add employees in the coming months. The company currently has six employees and intends to bring on another four over the next year, Stevens said.
"We already have our test and the ability to bring it to market, so we're going to take an aggressive approach to fight an aggressive cancer," Stevens said.
