SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Tasso Inc., a pioneer in clinical-grade, at-home, self-sampling blood collection, today announced it has completed an oversubscribed $17 million Series A financing round. The company will use the proceeds to scale manufacturing and operations to meet the increased demand for its line of innovative Tasso OnDemand devices, which enable people to collect their own blood using a virtually painless process from anywhere at any time. These fast and easy-to-use products are being adopted by leading academic medical institutions, government agencies, comprehensive cancer centers, and pharmaceutical organizations around the world.
The Series A financing round was led by Hambrecht Ducera Growth Ventures and included participation from Foresite Capital, Merck Global Health Innovation Fund, Vertical Venture Partners, Techstars, and Cedars-Sinai. As part of the investment, Elizabeth Hambrecht, Partner at Hambrecht Ducera Growth Ventures, has joined Tasso’s Board of Directors. To date, Tasso has now raised a total of $38.6 million from grants, private investments, and co-development collaborations.
“With its talented team and proven technology platform, Tasso is poised to transform the traditional, painful, in-person blood draw process, which has been the standard of care for the past six decades,” said Ms. Hambrecht. “Tasso continues to consistently exceed our expectations with all of its co-development collaborations, even amid these unprecedented market challenges. We look forward to supporting the Tasso team on its journey to realizing the full potential of its platform.”
“The Merck Global Health Innovation Fund was established to enable companies like Tasso, to scale technology platforms with the potential to become integral parts of our global healthcare ecosystem in support of enhancing patient health outcomes,” said Muna Bhanji, Senior Vice President of Global Market Access at Merck. “An important area of focus is the need for innovations that provide more patient-centric approaches to enable collection of reliable and actionable clinical data.”
The US telemedicine market was valued at $6.61 billion in 2019* and is expected to grow exponentially due to the coronavirus pandemic and rising needs for more efficient, patient-friendly, and remote solutions. Tasso’s OnDemand devices enable people to collect their own blood without any training, all from the comfort and privacy of their home. The samples are then mailed to a CLIA-certified, high-complexity clinical laboratory for analysis. The products are currently being validated for a wide variety of applications, including routine diagnostics, chronic disease monitoring, infectious disease surveillance, athletic and sports testing, virtual clinical trials, global health, and healthcare for under-served populations.
“The coronavirus pandemic has underscored the surging demand for more diagnostic solutions that are patient-friendly and can be deployed easily at home,” said Ben Casavant, PhD, CEO and Co-founder of Tasso. “The Tasso OnDemand devices are enabling people to be tested for COVID-19 and many other routine diagnostic applications, from anywhere at any time. This funding round is a strong validation of our approach and will allow us to build on our recent successes and enhance the platform with new value-added services in the future.”
About Tasso
Tasso is an emerging healthcare company that is transforming the traditional blood collection process with a more convenient and virtually painless approach that focuses on the patient. The company’s OnDemand devices allow people to collect blood with the push of a button from the comfort and privacy of their home, and then mail the samples back to a qualified laboratory for analysis. Headquartered in Seattle, Tasso is privately held and funded by grants from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Defense Threat Reduction Agency, and the National Institutes of Health, by investments from Hambrecht Ducera Growth Ventures, Merck Global Health Innovation Fund, Foresite Capital, Vertical Venture Partners, Techstars, and Cedars Sinai, and by co-development deals with various industry leaders. For more information, please visit www.tassoinc.com and follow @tassoinc.
Tasso, the Tasso logo, and Tasso OnDemand are trademarks of Tasso Inc. All other brands may be trademarks of their respective holders.
*https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/us-telemedicine-market/request-for-sample.
