US-based microbial risk assessment technology developer Ancera has secured $8.9m in a series A round featuring cleaning and sanitation services provider Packers Sanitation Services (PSSI) and epidemic risk analytics provider Metabiota.
Family office and existing investor Glass Capital Management led the round, which increased Ancera’s total financing to $12.3m. The company’s past investors include Connecticut Innovations, which invested $150,000 in 2013, and LaunchCapital.
Ancera’s MagDrive technology, originally developed at Yale University, enables the real-time examination of contamination in food sources, meaning microbial threats can be quickly detected and quantified.
PSSI and Metabiota will integrate the technology into their practices to assess the risk of pathogens in the food supply chain. Ancera will use the funding to increase its staff numbers as it prepares to launch the product officially in 2017.
Arjun Ganesan, co-founder and chief executive of Ancera, said: “With this funding and our new collaborations, Ancera is truly positioned to shift the status quo in the food industry.
“Our ability to rapidly deliver microbial risk information will help the food industry continue to improve the safety and quality of its products through every stage of the production process.”