Two Pore Guys Secures $24.5M Series A Funding to Advance Handheld Nanopore Diagnostic Platform

VCBeat (WeChat: vcbeat) has learned that Two Pore Guys (2PG), a company developing handheld nano-diagnostic technologies, announced today that it has secured $24.5 million in Series A financing, led by Khosla Ventures.

The new funding will be used to expand manufacturing of its handheld testing systems, grow the company’s executive team, and further develop its nanopore technology for whole-genome sequencing and genomic mapping.

Founded in 2011 and headquartered in Santa Cruz, California, the company secured $5.18 million in financing in 2016. The handheld single-molecule sensing platform developed by 2PG essentially miniaturizes medical laboratory equipment into a handheld device, enabling the monitoring of blood glucose, viruses, bacteria, antibodies, and other analytes.

Two Pore Guys (2PG) utilizes solid-state nanopore technology to enable digital and single-molecule sensing. Nanopore technology precisely detects each molecule by measuring the changes in electrical current as individual molecules pass through the nanopores. The device transmits data to authorized systems and cloud infrastructure, facilitating applications such as telemedicine, drug development, clinical trials, and global disease tracking.

The handheld single-molecule sensing platform it has developed offers accuracy, precision, and sensitivity equivalent to those of medical laboratory equipment, while integrating sampling and readout functionalities. Utilizing disposable test strips, this sensing platform can precisely detect “almost any type of molecule,” akin to medical laboratories. Its core technology is based on solid-state nanopore sensors, capable of detecting nucleic acids, proteins, and other components in human, animal, agricultural, and environmental samples.

2PG’s business model resembles that of a smartphone app store. Specific assays are developed by third parties and can detect nearly all types of molecules. Even traditional centralized laboratory equipment is compatible with 2PG’s platform. A key strength of this platform is its ability to unlimitedly expand the menu of high-sensitivity tests, thereby effectively meeting market demand. The company’s primary products include its reader devices and test strips, along with assay reagents developed in collaboration with other companies, which are distributed through master distributors.

Currently, the company has begun to establish collaborations across multiple sectors. The next step involves testing the platform, a process somewhat analogous to software developers testing smartphone applications. Target areas for this new technology include medical diagnostics for humans and animals, agriculture, food safety testing, environmental monitoring, and national defense.

Dan Heller, CEO of 2PG, stated, “Khosla Ventures has shown strong interest in us since we officially launched the company and announced our Phase I clinical liquid biopsy study with the University of California, San Francisco, a few months ago. We are delighted to partner with this top-tier venture capital firm as we enter the next stage of our development.”

Vinod Khosla, the lead investor, stated, “2PG’s platform has given rise to a new business model in diagnostics. Bringing tests to market under this model resembles that of software companies, as developers do not manufacture diagnostic technologies but instead design experimental protocols and analyze test results. As diagnostics become increasingly democratized through this platform, we can envision that 2PG’s comprehensive cell culture operations and big data analytics capabilities will unlock a new era of real-time precision medicine.”