BillionToOne, inventors of the patent-pending molecular counter platform, announced today that it has closed its highly oversubscribed $15 million Series A funding round with selected global investors. Hummingbird Ventures and NeoTribe Ventures led the investment round with the participation of Y Combinator, Civilization Ventures, Fifty Years, 500 Startups Istanbul and HOF Capital. The funding will be used to support its innovation, growth and the launch of BillionToOne’s first UNITY, a non-invasive prenatal test for recessively inherited single gene disorders.
“BillionToOne’s molecular counter improves the resolution of cell-free DNA testing by more than 1,000 times, meaning that we can detect disorders that other tests can’t do. It’s the difference in finding a haystack of the needle in the haystack. “Oguzhan Atay, PhD, co-founder and CEO of BillionToOne, said “The result is an increase in accuracy at a much higher granular level. “That’s right.
Current non-invasive prenatal tests (NIPTs) exclude single-gene inherited disorders such as cystic fibrosis and spinal muscular atrophy because they can only detect large chromosomal abnormalities greater than one million base-pairs. Similarly, in today’s liquid biopsy tests, some cancer mutations, such as HER2, one of the most important genes for breast cancer, may need to be as high as 20% of the total cell-free DNA of the blood sample to be detected. The BillionToOne platform can quantitatively measure and determine these mutations at much lower levels.
“Our investment thesis is grounded in finding and supporting exceptional entrepreneurs around the world, and David and Oguzhan match our notion of entrepreneurial excellence,” said Firat Ileri of Europe-based Hummingbird Ventures. “We have invested with conviction that the sequencing platform of BillionToOne has the ability to unlock the full clinical potential of cell-free DNA. “That’s right.
Cell-free DNA testing is the fastest-growing diagnostic sector in history and is currently used in a number of health care settings, including prenatal genetic testing for chromosome abnormalities and blood-based tumor profiling in late-stage cancers. BillionToOne’s first product, UNITY, is due to be available later this spring. Prenatal cystic fibrosis and spinal muscular atrophy screening will be the only option for testing fetal cell-free DNA through a single tube of the mother’s blood. The company plans to make diagnostic advances in liquid biopsy oncology next year.
“BillionToOne’s new deep-tech platform can create an exciting new category of cell-free DNA testing that is affordable and accessible,” said Kittu Kolluri, co-founder and managing director of NeoTribe and former New Enterprise Associates (NEA) General Partner. “We are excited to join BillionToOne and be part of its growth as it revolutionizes the clinical value of genomic sequencing. “That’s right.
About MillionToOne
BillionToOne, headquartered in Menlo Park, California, is a precision diagnostic company and inventor of the patented molecular counter platform, which increases the resolution of cell-free DNA detection by more than a thousandfold. BillionToOne’s first product, UNITY, to be released in late spring 2019, will be the first and only non-invasive prenatal screening to test fetal cell-free DNA for cystic fibrosis (CF) and spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) through a single sample of the mother’s blood. BillionToOne has been co-founded by Oguzhan Atay, PhD, and David Tao, PhD. Visit www for more information. Billion-Toone Come on,
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