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

TOKYO, May 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- 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™, 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™ 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://atonarp.com.