Day Zero Diagnostics Secures $8.6M Series A to Advance AI-Driven, High-Throughput Sequencing Platform for Rapid Infectious Disease Diagnosis

Recently, VCBeat (WeChat Official Account: vcbeat) learned that life sciences startup Day Zero has secured $8.6 million in Series A funding to support the research and development of rapid diagnostic technologies for infectious diseases. The round was led by Triventures, with participation from Sands Capital Ventures and Golden Seeds.

Day Zero was founded by a team of scientists from Harvard University and clinicians from Massachusetts General Hospital, with its headquarters in Boston, USA. Since its establishment in 2016, Day Zero has collaborated closely with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT, and Harvard to develop Blood2Bac, a method for extracting bacterial DNA from clinical samples. In addition, the company has built a large-scale database, Micro hmDB, which contains whole-genome sequences of pathogens and their antibiotic resistance profiles. This database will not only become one of the largest genomic databases in the world but also serve as a training resource for the company’s machine learning algorithm, Keynome.

Day Zero stated that its rapid diagnostic technology, based on sequencing, utilizes high-throughput sequencing and proprietary machine learning algorithms to identify bacterial pathogen species and antibiotic resistance profiles within just a few hours. This technology is expected to help patients reduce the use of ineffective antibiotics and shorten hospital stays.

Jong Lee, CEO and Co-Founder of Day Zero Diagnostics, stated, “This funding will enable us to further refine our rapid diagnostic technologies and expand the deployment of our products to address a broader range of urgent infectious disease cases.”

In the future, Day Zero will accelerate the prototyping of its sample preparation technologies and computational methods to launch a suite of sequencing-based diagnostic services for clinicians, enabling them to monitor and manage infectious diseases.

Triventures is a venture capital firm headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel, managing over $130 million in assets. Its primary investment sectors include life sciences, genomics, health services, and robotics.

Sands Capital Ventures is the venture capital affiliate of Sands Capital Management, focusing on growth-stage companies across all phases in the life sciences sector. The firm is headquartered in Virginia, USA.

Golden Seeds is a New York-based private equity firm and one of the largest and most active investment groups in the United States, dedicated to investing in women-led businesses.