Medical device startup Atonarp closes $33 million Series C funding to accelerate the development of its healthcare diagnostics platform

Atonarp, a molecular diagnostics tech startup and the maker of the world’s first and smallest quantitative mass spectrometer, has raised $33 million in an oversubscribed Series C funding round to accelerate the development progress of disruptive healthcare diagnostics platform. The round was led by INCJ, Ltd, a Japanese company founded in September 2018 from the split from Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ).

The financing round also attracted five new investors including Japan Post Investment Corporation, SBI Investment Co., Ltd, and Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures as well as current investors, Innovative Venture Fund Investment Limited Partnership, and a major medical equipment manufacturing company. The funding will also be used primarily to support Atonarp’s product prototyping and commercialization in 2020 and beyond, as well as build on and reinforce the company’s technology platforms.

Since early 2014, Atonarp has raised more than $61 million in three rounds of equity financing in pursuit of its vision of ushering in the next generation of process monitoring and healthcare diagnostics through its innovative AI-based platforms of mass spectrometry and optical spectroscopy. The latter is geared to deliver pain-free point-of-care blood testing with lab-quality accuracy but with real-time actionable data. These unparalleled advantages are also expected to bring about cost savings to patients and healthcare providers. The Series C funding will grow the company’s balance sheet and support ongoing product prototyping and commercialization into the healthcare market.

Founded in 2010 by Tomoyoshi Sato and Prakash Murthy, the Tokyo-based Atonarp is pioneering the field of chemical composition analysis by combining state-of-the-art electronics and data processing algorithms. Atonarp’s Smart Spectrometer will enable manufacturers of gas-composition analysis instruments, such as field-based gas chromatography equipment, to achieve breakthrough improvements in cost, size, accuracy and maintenance-free operation without the need for expensive carrier gases. The Smart Spectrometer platform is also enabling novel use cases and applications for manufacturers of medical equipment and patient devices, including non-invasive, highly accurate personal healthcare monitoring.

Atonarp is currently sampling its Smart Spectrometer platform to leading manufacturers of oil & gas and healthcare instruments. “Atonarp has continued to execute at a fast pace towards our goal of disrupting the old healthcare diagnostics model that is time-consuming, painful and costly,” said Prakash Murthy, Chief Executive Officer of Atonarp. “With our recent innovative engineering progress, we are well-positioned to meet our product roadmap deliverables in 2020. Both the general population and healthcare providers are ready for this revolutionized healthcare experience – especially when it is priced competitively. We are honored to welcome these long-term investors to the Atonarp community as we look forward to what’s ahead for the company in terms of line of products and services that we are feverishly executing on.”

“As a growth investment fund, SBI Investment is looking for opportunities to invest in fast growing sector leaders whose potential to use technology will enhance the customer experience of large populations,” said Yusuke Matsumoto, Deputy General Manager, Investment Department of SBI Investment. “Not only has Atonarp proved this is possible with its innovative technology platform, but the artificial intelligence in tandem with the data analytics model that they are building has the potential to produce personalized health portfolios for millions of people and disrupt medicine – and healthcare – as we have come to know and accept it.”

“Atonarp differentiated mass spectrometry platform is solving long-standing issues in the intricate production processes of the pharmaceutical and semiconductor sectors. In healthcare sector, Atonarp is poised to deliver high quality, integrated and affordable lab-type diagnostics to the population at large. We are excited to support Atonarp through this next phase of the company’s growth,” Yuichi Kawakami, Partner of Innovative Venture Fund, NEC Capital Solutions Ltd, said,

Commenting on the funding, Mikihide Katsumata, President and COO of INCJ, Ltd. who led this financing round as a repeat investor, said that “Atonarp is the healthcare diagnostics entrant with the best chance of disrupting the conventional status quo of the medical lab testing industry. This financing round positions Atonarp well to capitalize on its transformational engineering approach to medical diagnostics in order to revolutionize patient experience through a smart personalized healthcare business model empowered by real-time actionable data.”