US-based food safety testing technology developer Clear Labs has completed a $21m series B2 round that included Dentsu Ventures, digital marketing firm Dentsu’s corporate venturing unit.
Venture capital firm Menlo Ventures led the round, which also featured Wing VC, Felicis Ventures, Khosla Ventures and undisclosed food producers. The company said the round took its total funding to $45m.
Founded in 2014, Clear Labs develops preventative food safety systems based on its next generation sequencing (NGS) platform. The cash will be used to expand the range of its platform, which currently tests for salmonella, and to increase commercial activities.
Sasan Amini, Clear Labs’ chief executive, said: “Food manufacturers and microbiology labs alike recognise that targeted NGS technology will not just fill the gaps left by legacy pathogen testing technologies like [polymerase chain reaction], but propel the entire industry towards a failsafe food system.
“Clear Labs is the only viable NGS-based option for the food safety industry. This round of funding will help us fulfil all of our customers’ needs and prepare for mass commercialisation.”
Khosla Ventures and Felicis Ventures co-led the company’s $6.5m series A round in 2015 and returned for a $13m series B in late 2016 that was led by Wing VC and also backed by internet group Tencent and GV, a subsidiary of internet and technology conglomerate Alphabet.
