Roka raises $47.5M in Series D round

Roka Bioscience announced today that it has secured $47.5 million in Series D financing. New investor Aisling Capital participated in the financing along with existing investors OrbiMed Advisors, New Enterprise Associates, Inc., and TPG Biotech. In conjunction with the financing, Josh Bilenker, M.D., Partner at Aisling Capital, will join Roka's Board of Directors. The proceeds of this round will support commercialization of the company's Atlas™ System and ongoing assay development. The company closed on $27.5 million of the Series D round in December 2011 and expects to close on the remaining $20 million later this year. Upon completion of the Series D round, the total amount raised since the company's formation in September 2009 will be $104.7 million.

The Atlas™ System is an innovative fully automated molecular instrument for the detection of food pathogens in food and environmental samples. This instrument utilizes a simple three-step procedure—Enrich, Transfer, Automate—and is capable of processing over 300 samples in 8 hours. The instrument's dynamic scalability and high throughput provides greater efficiency, flexibility, and freedom to meet the ever-increasing demands placed on food safety laboratories. The initial menu for the Atlas System will be the Roka Listeria and Salmonella Detection Assays. Additional assays are currently in development.

"We are very pleased with the continued confidence and support from our existing investors and are excited about adding Aisling Capital, a leading private equity firm, to our investor syndicate," stated Paul Thomas, CEO and President of Roka Bioscience. "The new funding will support our commercialization efforts."