Fast Forward Forensics, a Madison-based startup that makes medical devices that allow for better and more accurate readings when doing genetic tests and DNA analysis, launched a new product Wednesday that aims to better collect and store DNA.
Founded in 2012 by Randy Nagy, Fast Forward Forensics started as a company looking to improve the way sexual assault victims collected and reported DNA evidence after an incident. Now, the company has expanded its market reach, supplying its devices to forensic labs.
“When I first started Fast Forward Forensics, the problem I was looking to solve was how to improve the collection and preservation of biological evidence from crime scenes and sexual assaults,” Nagy said. “There’s got to be a way to standardize or simplify the way you collect a swab remotely and get it to the laboratory.”
The startup’s latest product, called the Gentueri Buccal Collection Kit, combines the company’s two other products, the SwabSaver and SimpleSwab, into one. Using the kit, anyone anywhere can collect biological samples because it protects and preserves swabs from the point of collection, through shipping, room temperature storage and initial processing.
Nagy would not disclose the names of Fast Forward Forensics’ specific clients, but said they include forensic government agencies and state crime laboratories. Those agencies and labs then send kits to people who need to collect samples, and they can do it right from home. Nagy said that with the rise of DNA services like Ancestry and 23andme, those companies could also become clients for Fast Forward Forensics.
“We have a unique product that anybody, anywhere can use to collect a biological sample,” Nagy said.
Nagy, who has a background in DNA forensics and cancer research, has worked at companies like Life Technologies, a biotech company in California, and Madison-based Promega.
He is currently the only employee at Fast Forward Forensics, but Nagy said he plans to hire two more team members within the next month, and hopes to have about 10 by the end of 2019.
The startup, which moved into a new manufacturing facility in Madison in September, is on track to make more than $500,000 in sales this year, Nagy said. With the addition of the company’s Gentueri kit, Nagy said he expects sales to approach $2 million next year.
Fast Forward Forensics has also raised $500,000 from the Badger Fund of Funds, a Wisconsin seed venture capital fund, Nagy said.
