Integrated Diagnostics raises $30M

Seattle-based Integrated Diagnostics raised a $30 million Series A round that President Paul Kearney expects will take the company through its next three years of product development.

The company attracted an odd cabal of investors, including InterWest Partners, a U.S. venture firm; Dievini Hopp Biotech Holding, an investment company run by the founder of German software giant SAP; The Wellcome Trust, an organization that claims to be the United Kingdom’s largest charity and invests just under $1 billion annually in biotech research; and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.

If the investor syndicate is unusual, it may be because the company poses an unusual opportunity.

Integrated Diagnostics is using protein blood markers to monitor the health of various organs in the body. It is working to develop tests on those blood markers that will identify changes associated with disease. It has the potential to cut the cost of diagnosis and to help doctors spot problems sooner.

The technology emerged from a public-private partnership between the nation of Luxembourg and three U.S.-based research institutions, including the Institute for Systems Biology.

Luxembourg was interested in diversifying its economic base away from financial services and reached out to top biotech researchers to help stimulate the formation of a local tech industry there, Kearney says.