Intudo, Vulcan Capital lead $12.6m funding for SG gene testing firm

Nalagenetics, a Singapore-based genetic testing company, has raised US$12.6 million in a series A round co-led by Intudo Ventures and Vulcan Capital, with participation from the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (ASTAR).

(From left) Nalagenetics co-founders Jianjun Liu, Astrid Irwanto, Levana Sani, and Alexander Lezhava / Photo credit: East Ventures

Nalagenetics develops solutions that check the reaction of genes to certain drugs (pharmacogenomics) and foods (nutrigenomics), including risks to chronic diseases such as breast cancer. These solutions include software to analyze genes data, wet-lab protocols, bioinformatics algorithms, and clinical recommendations.

The company is currently active in Indonesia and Singapore, and it aims to expand to Malaysia this year. It has signed service agreements with more than 40 hospital and clinic partners, and it has also launched a new lab in Singapore.

Founded in April 2016 by Levana Sani, Astrid Irwanto, Jianjun Liu, and Alexander Lezhava, Nalagenetics is part of the Innovation Fellow program by the Genome Institute of Singapore, a unit under ASTAR.

The healthtech firm plans to use the fresh funding for product development and hiring purposes. It also plans to develop new modules for other types of diseases such as cancer, cardiometabolic diseases (e.g., diabetes), and neurodegenerative conditions (e.g., Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease).

In 2018, Nalagenetics raised US$1 million in a seed round led by East Ventures.

See also: Series SEA: Who’s investing in the region’s health startups?

 Other investors in the series A round include:

• Integra Partners
• Dexa International
• Diagnos Laboratories