Nicoya Extends Series A Financing With Additional $20m to Meet Demand of Rapidly Growing Proteomics Industry

Nicoya’s Series A Extension is led by Whitecap Venture Partners, with participation from industry leader Agilent Technologies Inc (NYSE: A)

KITCHENER, Ontario--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nicoya Lifesciences, a global leader in digital proteomics solutions, today announced a $20 million Series A extension led by Whitecap Venture Partners. The round included participation from strategic investor Agilent Technologies, a leading global developer of analytical instrumentation for the life sciences, as well as Export Development Canada, BDC Capital, MaRS IAF, Garage Capital, and others. The funding will fuel Nicoya’s continued development & commercialization of Alto™, an innovative surface plasmon resonance (SPR) platform that digitalizes label-free protein characterization, and expansion into new international markets.

Nicoya, a Canadian-based life sciences tools company, aims to help scientists better understand and treat diseases by providing them with best-in-class tools for scientific discovery. Their label-free biosensor platform, Alto, integrates surface plasmon resonance (SPR) with digital microfluidics (DMF) to revolutionize the way biologics developers approach biological assays and tackle challenging drug targets. This disruptive technology platform is broadly applicable to the most advanced therapeutic approaches, saving precious time and money.

“The team at Nicoya is building disruptive tools for disease and drug discovery research,” said Russell Samuels, Partner at Whitecap Venture Partners. “Their technology is being used every day by scientists who develop life-saving drugs and make key findings about common diseases that affect our lives. As a repeat investor, we are proud to continue our partnership with Nicoya and to also welcome Agilent, EDC and other new investors to the team.”

Other repeat investors in this round include BDC Capital, MaRS IAF, Garage Capital, and others. Nicoya previously announced $10M in Series A financing in early 2020, also led by Whitecap, which enabled them to grow to a team of over 100 employees and launch the early adopter program for Alto. The financing brings the Canadian-based company’s total raised since inception to $35 million.

"Agilent is continually looking to help accelerate analytical technologies that will drive breakthroughs in life sciences and diagnostics,” said Tad Weems, Managing Director, Early Stage Partnerships at Agilent Technologies. “We believe Nicoya’s digital, high-throughput Alto platform has significant advantages versus existing SPR techniques. By generating real-time data, the benchtop Alto provides the proteomics community the ability to advance life science and improve patients’ lives. We look forward to partnering with Nicoya.”

Nicoya’s solutions are currently being used by over 500 of the world’s leading researchers. The biosensor developer will look to continue expanding in the academic, government, biotechnology, and pharmaceutical sectors.

“We are entering into the next era of proteomics, the growth of which parallels that of the genomics industry,” said Ryan Denomme, CEO and Co-Founder of Nicoya. “This additional funding enables us to continue building innovative tools that will support the needs of this rapidly evolving industry. We are grateful that our investors and the broader industry see the opportunity and support the path we are forging to provide best-in-class digital proteomics solutions.”

About Nicoya Lifesciences

Nicoya is a Canadian life sciences tools company specializing in innovative biosensor technology for the academic, biotechnology and pharmaceutical sectors. In their mission to improve human life, Nicoya provides scientists with user-friendly and integrated solutions that accelerate label-free biomolecular analysis. With their world-class expertise in nanotechnology and microfluidics, Nicoya is now helping hundreds of scientists succeed in over 50 countries. Information about Nicoya can be found at nicoyalife.com, on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.