Nanopath raises $10M to be a diagnostic platform for women

The company wants to be the go-to system for routine women’s health screening at the point-of-care

While the femtech space may be booming, reaching over $1 billion for the first time ever in 2021, that still only accounts for 7% of all dollars going into US digital healthtech companies. That still leaves major gaps that still need to be filled.

One of those is in life sciences, which Dr. Amogha Tadimety and Dr. Alison Burklund realized while doing their Ph.D. research at Dartmouth’s Engineering School, leading them to found Nanopath, a point-of-care diagnostics platform for women’s health screenings.

"When we founded Nanopath, we identified two major gaps in the industry: the number of transformative life science companies focused on women’s health and the number of women-led life science companies. Women's health has been consistently overlooked, resulting in critical health decisions being made in the dark," Tadimety, the company's CEO, told VatorNews.

"Nanopath’s core mission is to address these critical disparities by developing technological breakthroughs designed to empower the patient and provider within the context of women’s most intimate infectious diseases and health obstacles."

On Tuesday, the company announced a $10 million Series A round of funding co-led by Norwest Venture Partners and the Medtech Convergence Fund, with participation from Gingerbread Capital and Green D Ventures. Nanopath had previously raised a seed round in 2020, long with a small business grant from the National Science Foundation, bringing its total funding to $11 million.

Spun out of Dartmouth College in 2019 in partnership with Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, the vision for Nanopath is to be the go-to system for routine women’s health screening at the point-of-care, with a focus on both viral and bacterial infections.

Its biosensing technology eliminates the need for nucleic acid amplification, which is ubiquitous among molecular testing technologies, enabling access to clinically actionable genetic information within a single office visit, meaning within 15 to 20 minutes. 

"Nanopath is disrupting the existing molecular testing paradigm and seeking to reimagine how we measure and characterize human health," said Tadimety.

"Using our novel approach, we aim to capture specific and actionable information that reflects the nuance of the underlying biology associated with pelvic and gynecologic health within a single office visit. We see this being used in a range of outpatient settings - basically anywhere that a woman would seek care!"

In late July, the company win the 2022 AACC Disruptive Technology Award, which recognizes innovative testing technology solutions that improve patient care through diagnostic performance or access to high-quality testing. It also won the inaugural 2021 Ignite Golden Ticket, which honors companies that advance life sciences innovation by making the biotechnology industry more inclusive and equitable.

Right now, as the company is still in the R&D phase, doesn't yet have any ROI, but it is currently collaborating with what Tadimety called "some of the leading hospitals in New England."

Nanopath says it will use the funding will support development and commercialization of its biosensing platform; that means growing its team to support its product development, clinical studies, manufacturing and scale-up, fundamental R&D, and commercial partnerships.

Along with the funding, it was revealed that Jeff Crowe, senior managing partner at Norwest Venture Partners, and Aaron Sandoski, founding partner at SV Health Investors' Medtech Convergence Fund, have joined the board of directors at Nanopath.

"Jeff Crowe and Aaron Sandoski have been phenomenal mentors to the two of us and are passionate about supporting us as first time founders. Jeff brings decades of experience operating and scaling technology companies, and the Norwest team members, including Trey Jennings, have phenomenal expertise in health systems and services that is critical as we lay our commercial plans," said Tadimety.

"Aaron Sandoski has spent his career operating and investing in medical technology and together with the Medtech Convergence Fund, an SV Health Investors fund, brings a deep understanding of the diagnostics world."

Both of these investors will help the company achieves its main two goals, she explained: first, to put out an exceptional product based on a novel technological insight, and, second, to build an amazing company with an intentional focus on sustainability, equity, and teammates who are happy and fulfilled. 

"We are an impact-driven company. Not only are we deeply passionate about improving human health and health equity through commercialization or our diagnostic solution, but we are also excited by the opportunity we have as founders to create a healthy and sustainable culture of innovation and inclusion within our company."