Multiomics firm Pleno has closed a $25 million series B funding round and appointed a new CEO.
The funding round included participation from key investors Deerfield Management, Foresite Capital, and Medical Excellence Capital, among others, Pleno said in a statement.
The early-stage San Diego-based startup said that the funding will go to its growth strategy, including scaling its commercial operations and further developing its Raptor multiomic instrument platform. The benchtop Raptor can detect up to thousands of biomarkers per sample with high precision and at a low cost, according to Pleno, rendering it suitable for a wide range of applications.
Pleno previously raised a total of $55 million in two rounds of series A funding: one in May 2022 for $15 million; the other in October 2022 for $40 million.
In addition, Pleno said that it named Dr. Vik Vaz as its new CEO and president. Vaz will also serve on the company's board of directors. Vaz served most recently as Illumina's head of strategy and market intelligence, as well as serving as manager of its companion diagnostics business. The firm also noted that Vaz remains actively licensed as a physician, having trained and served as a clinical instructor at Harvard Medical School/Beth Israel Deaconess hospital and the University of Miami.
