St. Louis startup Geneoscopy, which is developing diagnostic tools for gastrointestinal health, plans to advance its ongoing clinical trial and push forward with new product development efforts after raising $105 million in financing.
Lightchain Capital, the family office of Scottrade Financial Services Inc. founder Rodger Riney, and angel investor group NT Investments led the Series B funding round. The funding includes a mix of equity and debt funding, Geneoscopy said. Others in the deal include St. Louis-based investors Cultivation Capital and BioGenerator as well as Morningside Ventures, Labcorp (NYSE: LH) and Innovatus Capital Partners.
“We are extremely pleased to secure this financing with strong support from our previous and new investors. It reflects their confidence in our ability to address the significant unmet need within the colorectal cancer screening market for a noninvasive means to not only accurately detect cancer at an early stage, but also advanced adenomas—pre-cancerous polyps that are most likely to become cancerous,” said Andrew Barnell, Geneoscopy’s co-founder and CEO.
Geneoscopy had previously closed a $6.9 million Series A funding round in 2019. Its fresh financing comes as it is completing a clinical trial for its preventive screening test for colorectal cancer. In July, the startup said it enrolled the first patients in its CRC-PREVENT clinical trial to determine the safety and efficacy of its noninvasive, at-home screening test. The startup’s test in January 2020 received Breakthrough Device Designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The clinical trial isn't Geneoscopy's sole focus. The startup says it is also working to develop additional diagnostic products.
“As positive momentum continues to build for our pivotal and ongoing 10,000-patient trial, the team remains focused on ensuring a successful launch of our noninvasive multifactor RNA colorectal cancer screening test as a meaningful advancement in the fight to prevent colorectal cancer. Moreover, we have already made exciting progress towards broadening our diagnostic portfolio to address additional unmet needs within gastrointestinal health," Barnell said.
Barnell, Chief Science officer Erica Barnell and Director of Data Science Yiming Kang founded Geneoscopy in 2015. The Barnells are siblings. The startup operates an 11,000-square-foot lab and office facility near Westport Plaza and has more than 35 employees.
Geneoscopy is the third cancer-focused St. Louis startup in 2021 to raise a funding round exceeding $100 million. Clinical-stage immuno-oncology startup Arch Oncology in April said it raised $105 million in Series C financing while Wugen Inc. in July announced a $172 million Series B round to advance clinical development of its cancer-fighting therapies.
