Inanovate Secures $3.1M Series A Funding to Advance Blood-Based Breast Cancer Diagnostic Technology

VCBeat (WeChat ID: vcbeat) has learned that life sciences company Inanovate recently completed a $3.1 million Series A financing round. The round was jointly invested by South Dakota Equity Partners, T. Denny Sanford, and Sanford Frontiers, a subsidiary of Sanford Health. The company plans to use the funds to accelerate the development of its blood test technology for detecting antibodies associated with breast cancer in the blood.

Inanovate, founded in 2006, is a life sciences company dedicated to providing world-leading protein screening and analysis technologies to the life sciences industry, with a focus on cancer and autoimmune diseases. To date, Inanovate has completed two rounds of financing, raising a total of $3.6 million. In 2015, the company secured $500,000 in seed funding.

Inanovate has developed a Longitudinal Analysis Screening (LAS) blood test technology for detecting and measuring multiple proteins. This technology has been integrated into Inanovate’s first product, Bio-ID. The Bio-ID system consists of a compact benchtop analyzer and disposable test cartridges. To perform a test, users simply load the sample into the Bio-ID cartridge, insert the cartridge into the analyzer, and press the “Go” button to initiate the assay.

Bio-ID can rapidly and accurately measure the concentrations of multiple disease-related biomarkers in patient blood samples, offering the advantages of low cost and high accuracy. In a clinical trial, Inanovate combined Bio-ID with seven patented breast cancer-specific biomarkers. The results demonstrated that these biomarkers could effectively identify breast cancer, with a sensitivity of 83% and a specificity of 70%. This means that 8 out of every 10 breast cancer patients can be correctly identified.

Breast cancer is one of the most common malignant tumors in women. It has a significant familial genetic predisposition, and early detection and diagnosis are key to improving treatment efficacy. Furthermore, 30%-40% of breast cancer patients face a risk of recurrence. After patients undergo treatment, Inanovate continues to monitor their physical condition through blood testing technology, thereby reducing the recurrence rate of breast cancer.

South Dakota Equity Partners is a private equity firm headquartered in South Dakota, United States. The firm invests exclusively in companies located in South Dakota, fostering the state’s economic development by providing capital support and assisting these companies in growing their businesses.

T. Denny Sanford is an individual angel investor.

Sanford Frontiers, established in 2012 and headquartered in South Dakota, USA, is a healthcare services company. It is a subsidiary of the healthcare organization Sanford Health.

(Compiled by Jiao Yanli)