2016 was the inaugural year for the Bend Venture Conference’s Social Impact Competition. Out of 33 companies vying for financing, three walked away with funding commitments, including Hemex Health. BVC Social Impact, LLC., the social impact funding arm of the Bend Venture Conference, was the first fund to invest in Hemex Health, a company that provides new diagnostics for malaria and sickle cell disease.
Late last month it was announced that Hemex Health raised an additional $1.7 million to continue funding their technology: “a veritable laboratory in a box that can diagnose deadly diseases…in just minutes, at a far lower cost than current diagnostics,” noted Clare McGrane of Geekwire.
The Portland-based company continues to gain traction, adding the recently raised $1.7 million to an additional $1.5 million grant from the National Institute of Health’s Small Business Innovation Research, bringing their total funding to its current $3.2 million.
Hemex Health specializes in developing lab-quality, point-of-care diagnostics for the developing world. Their initial releases will focus on inexpensive and portable diagnostics for malaria and sickle cell, two diseases that have received increased attention from Non-Governmental Organizations and governments in disease-affected countries. Both technologies, developed at Case Western Reserve University, deliver significant advances in performance with minimal costs to the 3.2 billion people worldwide who are still at risk of developing these diseases.
For additional information on Hemex Health, read their recent coverage in Geekwire.
To apply to present at the 2017 Bend Venture Conference Social Impact Competition, view the requirements here. To apply as an early or growth stage company, click here. The application period ends Friday, August 11, 2017.
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