CosmosID has raised $6 million to advance its microbiome software business. The Series B round is intended to enable CosmosID to build out and enhance multiple aspects of its operation, with the expansion of engineering capabilities and improvement of genotype-phenotype linkage abilities high on its agenda.
Rockville, MD-based CosmosID has raised the money on the strength of its ability to quickly identify microorganisms, a capability that is underpinned by its software and databases. CosmosID has put together a database of 65,000 microbial genomes and paired it with next-generation sequencing capabilities, giving it the ability to detect microorganisms in metagenomic samples. The $6 million will allow CosmosID to try to improve this existing platform--while developing products on top of it--and continue to explore what can be achieved by sifting through large repositories of data.
"By analyzing huge amounts of data, we are able to make actionable decisions to improve health and well-being," CosmosID CEO Manoj Dadlani said in a statement. CosmosID has highlighted a handful of ways in which it wants to use the $6 million to further and refine this concept. As well as investment in engineering and genotype-phenotype linkage, CosmosID is planning to funnel cash into bolstering the clinical applications of its platform and the development of products to monitor, predict and prevent outbreaks of disease.
CosmosID has identified disease outbreaks and clinical settings as two of the niches in which it wants to establish itself. In both fields, the ability of CosmosID to perform the analysis quickly--it claims a turnaround time of fewer than 24 hours--could give it and the organizations it serves an edge. The company also has drug research shops in its sights. In drug discovery, CosmosID sees itself facilitating the translation of microbiome science into products, while also supporting toxicity screening to spot biochemicals that emerge downstream of a microbial action.
- read the release