Temasek’s Vertex leads Series B round for Clearbridge BioMedics
Vertex Ventures, a VC unit of Temasek Holdings, has led a Series B round of financing for Singapore-based Clearbridge BioMedics worth S$9 million ($7.2 million). Other participants include existing investor BioVeda, Spring Seeds Capital, Biosensors International founder Yoh-Chie Lu, and Clearbridge BSA, which is part of the Singapore government’s biomedical science accelerator initiative to encourage medical start-ups.
The capital will be used to develop Clearbridge's ClearCell System, used to detect, isolate and retrieve circulating tumor cells from blood. The technology aims to be the next generation of non-invasive "liquid biopsy" cancer screening.
As part of the transaction, Joo-Hock Chua, Vertex managing director and CIO, will join the company's board.
"Having already entered the cancer research market with its ClearCell System, Clearbridge BioMedics is well-positioned to have a tremendous impact on the way healthcare professionals screen, diagnose, treat and monitor cancer patients," Chua said in a statement. "Our investment focus has been to invest and build global champions. We see Clearbridge BioMedics, with its leading world class technology platform, as being one of them."
Set up in late 2009, Clearbridge is a spin-off company from the National University of Singapore dedicatd to developing medical devices for use in cancer diagnostics and patient care. It has customers in Asia, Europe and North America.
Clearbridge's first round of funding in 2010 was led by Clearbridge BSA. In 2011, Tim Draper, founder of Draper Fisher Jurveston, invested in Clearbridge BSA.
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