Image: Kinsa
US medtech company Kinsa’s production line is set to speed up after a successful funding round saw $17m raised.
San Francisco-based Kinsa has more than doubled its funding total with its latest round, worth $17m, bringing its entire financing to $28.6m to date.
The company, which makes smart thermometers that sync with smartphones, is due to ramp up production of its growing range on the back of the announcement.
Expanding services
GSR Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers and FirstMark Capital are among those involved in the latest round, following a successful year at the company.
“With this investment, Kinsa is excited to expand our services,” said Inder Singh, founder and CEO of Kinsa.
“From the start, our vision has been to use connected health products to engage with people the moment they fall ill, helping them get better and stay well. We’re thrilled that the success of our smart thermometers has allowed us to reach this inflection point.”
Medtech will mean big business in 2017, with the ever-expensive life sciences sector, for example, an area of significant focus.
Cancer check
Grail developing a screen for cancer is one such costly approach. And so, at the start of the year, the company – a spin-out from gene-sequencing giant Illumina – sought $1bn in financing.
$900m has been secured already, with Amazon, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Celgene, McKesson Ventures, Merck, Tencent Holdings Limited and Varian Medical Systems joining Johnson & Johnson Innovation as new investors.
Freenome, a company working on a similar service, raised $65m last week.
Elsewhere, Atlantic Therapeutics raised €15m in funding through Seroba Life Sciences and Earlybird Venture Capital, as well as loan capital from Silicon Valley Bank.
The company develops devices for non-invasive pelvic floor strengthening as well as nerve stimulation products.
Sports science
Last month, OncoMark, a UCD-based start-up looking at cancer treatment, raised €2.1m to help prepare its innovative breast cancer diagnostic test for a 2018 release.
OncoMark develops panels of cancer biomarkers that can help medical professionals to decide on treatments, as well as tailor patient management.
Elsewhere, Orreco, a sports and data science company based in Ireland, raised $2m in funding through Silicon Valley-based firm True Ventures.
Orreco uses machine learning and data analytics to investigate and monitor injuries experienced by sportspeople.
