BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Parallel Fluidics, a Boston-based digital manufacturer of microfluidic devices, is proud to announce it raised a $1.8 million round of financing from a syndicate of leading investors, founders, and technologists. This brings the company’s total funding to $2 million since its founding in 2020, including funding from the National Science Foundation. The company says it will use the funding to hire new employees, in particular manufacturing and mechanical engineers, and further develop its capabilities and capacity.
Microfluidic devices scale down complicated laboratory processes into single devices that are often smaller than a credit card. The miniaturization and automation afforded by these microfluidic chips have the potential to decrease the cost and increase the reliability of point-of-care testing, genomics, diagnostics, drug development, and many other fields—all of which play a significant role in understanding and improving human health.
Recognizing the benefits of using microfluidic technologies, academic institutions and biotechnology companies have made significant investments in the space. Groups at over 240 universities and other research institutes globally use microfluidic devices to research or develop new devices.
While microfluidic devices have many benefits for end-users, the technology development process can be challenging and expensive. In particular, the manufacture of microfluidic prototypes is a significant pain point.
Parallel Fluidics was founded in 2020 by Josh Gomes, a veteran of the organ-on-chip industry, and Andy Harris, a software engineer who previously built automated orchestration systems at Uber. The pair won a $225k SBIR grant from the National Science Foundation, with a plan to reduce the friction pervasive in the development process of new microfluidic products. Parallel now offers the industry’s fastest turnaround time for prototype devices, cutting the industry-standard turnaround time of 3-4 weeks down to just two days.
“Researchers developing new microfluidic technologies are making incredible scientific advances, but are often held back by engineering and manufacturing challenges. We’re building a platform that will lower the barrier of entry to microfluidic development by providing rapid device prototypes and solutions to these shared engineering problems. Our goal is to help scientists innovate faster and improve the chances that their products will make the jump from lab to market,” says Gomes, the company’s CEO.
Investors include leaders in digital manufacturing and the lab-on-chip space, including Larry Lukis, Founder and Chairman (retired) of ProtoLabs, the world’s leader in rapid manufacturing, Matt Blodgett an early investor in ProtoLabs and Xometry, John McEleney, Co-Founder of Onshape, and Sean Dalton, who led Xometry’s Series A investment.
