PR89558

TOKYO, May 18, 2021 /PRNewswire=KYODO JBN/ --

-- Michael Marks, Founding Partner for WRVI Capital, Joins the Atonarp Board

and Former Berkeley Lights CFO Shaun Holt Joins as Atonarp's Chief Operating

Officer

Atonarp(

https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=3166980-1&h=1279909881&u=https%3A%2F%2Fatonarp.com%2F&a=Atonarp

), a leading manufacturer of molecular sensing and diagnostics products for the

healthcare, pharma, and semiconductor industries, today announced it has raised

a $50 million Series D financing, led by WRVI Capital. The new funding will

allow the company to expand its operations to meet growing customer demand in

its current markets and expedite the development and commercialization of its

molecular diagnostics products. The company has announced the appointment of

Shaun Holt as its chief operating officer (COO).

"Atonarp is developing the future of point-of-care molecular diagnostics

testing," said Nicholas Brathwaite, founding managing partner of WRVI Capital

and Board Chair of Atonarp. "As one of Atonarp's first investors, we recognized

early on that the company's breakthrough molecular sensor technology could spur

innovation across industries. With its seasoned team of technologists, Atonarp

will continue to expand its first-in-class, proven, and transformational

molecular sensor technology platform to new industries."

As the lead investor, WRVI Capital Founding Partner Michael Marks has been

appointed to Atonarp's Board, joining Nicholas Brathwaite who will remain

involved as Board Chair. Also participating in Atonarp's Series D are Furukawa

Electric, Japan Post Investment, Boscolo Intervest, ATI Korea, and Banner

Industries. Atonarp has now raised $111M in funding to date.

"Atonarp's goals are the same as ours," said Yoshio Masutani, corporate vice

president of Furukawa Electric. "We are delighted to support a business whose

technology has a myriad of applications, but most importantly can help people

make proactive health decisions through Atonarp's non-invasive diagnostic

testing platform."

New Platform Technology Offers Lab-Quality Results Without Use of Chemistry

Atonarp is a pioneer in the digital transformation of molecular diagnostics in

pharma, semiconductor manufacturing, industrial process control, and now in the

life sciences sector. The company uses its proprietary spectroscopic technology

to detect, analyze, and quantify molecular information. Atonarp offers a suite

of molecular diagnostics products, including the ATON-360(TM), an end-to-end

platform that enables lab-quality results using optical sensors. Unlike

traditional diagnostic and blood testing methods that rely on chemistry and

require large volumes of biological samples for processing, Atonarp uses

proprietary laser-based sensing and profiling technology to analyze small

sample sizes and produce a digital molecular snapshot without any use of

chemistry or expensive reagents.

Stanford University Professor Dr. Phyllis Gardner added, "Point-of-care-testing

is the future for medical diagnostics, but the industry has been hampered by

costly chemistry-driven panels that require large sample volumes and centrally

based laboratories for processing. Atonarp's molecular sensors scan and store

an entire digital dataset from incredibly small sample amounts. This technology

can support distributed point-of-care diagnostics, which is critical to

achieving predictive and proactive healthcare practices, in turn, leading to

better diagnoses, treatment, and outcomes for patients."  

"We have developed the industry's smallest, smartest, cloud-connected,

plug-and-play molecular diagnostics platform that quantitatively analyze

chemical processes in real-time with unprecedented detail, and are poised to

broadly deploy our disruptive platform across multiple industries and market

segments," said Prakash Murthy, president and CEO, CTO, and founder of Atonarp.

"We are grateful to WRVI Capital and our other investors who believe in our

vision and the approach we take to revolutionize how the world uses molecular

data analysis. We're excited to have Shaun Holt on board as COO to help support

our next phase of growth as we expand our product offerings for industrial and

life sciences applications."

Atonarp's currently marketed molecular sensing platforms, Aston™ for

semiconductor and process monitoring, and LyoSentinel(TM) for Pharma, have

transformed how its customers manage and optimize process controls. In life

sciences, the ATON-360 will reshape the dialysis patient experience, cell-based

product discovery and development processes, and in-vitro diagnostics. Today,

the company's digital molecular technology provides a fast, pain-free, and

cost-effective in-vitro diagnostics solution that does not require

phlebotomists while producing quantitative reports and analytics in seconds.

The company's product development roadmap is also set to pioneer a new frontier

in blood diagnostics with their in-vivo diagnostics platform development

efforts. Atonarp is developing a first-of-its-kind non-contact optical

diagnostic platform capable of quantifying analytes in biofluids, slated for

release in 2022. The company's ultimate vision within molecular diagnostics is

to transition from minimally invasive to non-invasive blood testing by

optically probing blood vessels directly through the skin using laser-based

sensing and profiling technology.

Veteran Life Science Leader Joins as COO

Shaun Holt joins Atonarp as COO to focus on driving operational excellence

across Atonarp's global operations. Before Atonarp, Holt was the chief

financial officer for Berkeley Lights, Inc., where he led the digital cell

biology company through its $205M initial public offering. He brings more than

20 years of experience leading finance, accounting, operations, manufacturing,

supply chain, product development processes, and customer success functions

across various technology and life sciences companies from start-ups to

large-capitalization companies.

About Atonarp

Atonarp is a molecular diagnostics company reshaping how sensing and

diagnostics devices are applied to generate real-time actionable data and

achieve drastically better outcomes in healthcare and industrial semiconductor

processes. Atonarp is led by a world-class team of experts in the design,

development, and productization of highly sensitive diagnostics instruments.

Founded in 2010, the company has operations in Japan, India, and the United

States. Learn more at https://www.atonarp.com.

SOURCE: Atonarp

CONTACT: JZ Rigney, jz@kingstonmarketing.group