EvoNexus Portfolio Company, Pleno Raises $25M for Multiomics Testing, Names New CEO
“EvoNexus portfolio company, Pleno, was founded by serial entrepreneur Dr. Pieter van Rooyen in 2017 to improve early multi-cancer screening,” said EvoNexus Co-Founder & CEO, Rory Moore. “Co-founding Zyray Wireless, ecoATM, Edico Genome, Truvian Health, and Pleno, Pieter is the epitome of a risk-taking entrepreneur. EvoNexus has been fortunate to be a part of the early development of ecoATM, Edico Genome, and Pleno. Dr. van Rooyen has also been a terrific volunteer, assisting EvoNexus and often guiding other entrepreneurs in our program. EvoNexus will continue to assist Pleno in their journey.”
ENDPOINTS NEWS / DECEMBER 12TH, 2024 / Pleno has raised an additional $25 million in private funding to advance its tests that detect biological targets for drug research and diagnostics.
The company uses what it calls hypercoding, which combines telecommunications with biochemistry, to pick up on signals derived from DNA, RNA, methylation and proteins. By looking at various parts of biology, Pleno is among the companies pursuing multiomics.
Pleno aims to differentiate itself by bridging the gap between polymerase chain reaction — or PCR, a widely used lab technique to analyze samples — and next-generation sequencing that provides deeper analysis.
“There isn’t something that really would have the cost structure of PCR, but the flexibility to look at hundreds of thousands of targets. That’s where Pleno’s technology fits,” CEO Vik Vaz told Endpoints News.
Vaz is succeeding founder and former CEO Pieter van Rooyen, who is consulting for the company over the next six months, a company spokesperson said. Previously the head of strategy and market intelligence at DNA sequencing giant Illumina, Vaz’s new role was announced as part of the Series B funding round.
Vaz said Pleno has restructured to focus on areas like oncology and infectious disease. The company has about 30 employees.
Investors in the round included Deerfield Management, Foresite Capital and Medical Excellence Capital. With the recent financing, Pleno has raised a total of $75 million.
SOURCE: Jared Whitlock, Features Editor, Endpoints News
About Pleno
Pleno Inc. is an early-stage San Diego startup company developing a multi-omic instrument platform to revolutionize biological target detection for clinical testing and biomedical research and enable a broad array of applications from screening and detection, to diagnostics, prognostics and beyond. To learn more visit plenoinc.com.
About EvoNexus
EvoNexus is California’s leading nonprofit technology startup incubator located in San Diego. EvoNexus has successfully incubated over 265 startups with a survival rate of over 85%. Since the incubator’s formation in 2010, EvoNexus companies have secured over $1.6B in venture funding, $10B in pre-exit valuation, and had 54 acquisitions valued at over $2.1B. EvoNexus is supported by corporate partners, including some of the largest multinational corporations in the world. Learn more at evonexus.org/.