AAA Curetis adds Roche to its backers

Curetis adds Roche to its backers

Germany-based molecular diagnostics company Curetis expanded its series A round on Wednesday to €34m ($48.3m). The additional investment of €9.6m was provided by Roche Venture Fund, the corporate venturing unit of Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche, and venture capital (VC) firms Forbion Capital Partners and CD-Venture.

Other investors in Curetis’ series A round prior to this week are CD-Venture, German government-owned development bank KfW Bankengruppe, private equity funds Aeris Capital and Life Sciences Partners, and VC firm BioMed Partners. Altogether, Curetis has raised more than €36.6m ($50m) in equity funding since its inception in 2007.

Curetis is working on a hardware platform that will enable the detection of bacteria and antibiotic resistances from pathogens in a matter of hours, as opposed to days or weeks with other techniques.

The first application to come out of this research is centred on pneumonia detection, and is about to enter a crucial stage in its European clinical trials. The funding from the current round will be used to expand the range of tests Curetis is researching to include surgical site infection and tuberculosis, and to increase marketing.

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