Cue Health Closes $100M Series C Financing

Cue Health announced Wednesday that it has raised $100 million in Series C financing.

The San Diego-based firm said it will use proceeds from the financing to complete the development, validation, and manufacturing scale-up of the Cue Health Monitoring System and Cue Test Cartridges.

Investors in the round include Menlo Park-based Decheng Capital, Foresite Capital, Madrone Capital Partners, Johnson & Johnson Innovation - JJDC, Acme Capital, and other investment firms. Goldman Sachs & Co acted as exclusive placement agent for the Series C financing. 

Cue’s operations, including manufacturing, currently occupy approximately 55,000 square feet in San Diego. The company said it plans to increase its footprint to more than 110,000 square feet to better support the development and commercialization of its products, including a fast, portable, and easy-to-use molecular test for COVID-19, which is currently under review for Emergency Use Authorization by the US Food and Drug Administration.

"Healthcare settings such as nursing homes, emergency departments, and community health clinics need tools to allow them to access molecular test information immediately rather than waiting hours or days for lab results,"  Ayub Khattak, cofounder and CEO of Cue, said in a statement. "Ultimately, broad distribution of the connected Cue platform to both healthcare professionals and consumers will enable a new model of rapid, on-demand diagnostic testing and enhanced telemedicine capabilities, changing the way important health information is accessed and acted on."

Cue is also completing the validation needed for FDA submission of its portable system for at-home influenza A and B testing. That approval would mark the first at-home molecular flu test that is rapid, enabling a result in about 20 minutes and connectivity via telemedicine networks to a healthcare provider of the patient’s choice, Cue said.

The company added that it also anticipates the introduction of a series of infectious disease tests and products for other test categories in the coming years.

In March, the US Department of Health and Human Services' Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) awarded Cue Health a contract for $13 million to develop, validate, and obtain US regulatory clearance for a rapid molecular diagnostic test to detect SARS-CoV-2.