St. Pete genetics firm gets capital investment
InformedDNA has signed an agreement with TT Capital Partners, NovaQuest Capital Management and Frist Cressey Ventures to make meaningful growth capital investments into the company.
Terms of the private transaction were not disclosed.
InformedDNA, based in St. Petersburg, offers clinical genetic counseling, genetic testing utilization management, genetic testing payment integrity and expert genetics clinical trial support. The company will use the capital to continue scaling its technology-enabled genetics expert services, as well as to expand its staff of genetic counselors, a news release said.
“We’re thrilled to work with these partners as we bring more clarity and expertise to the increasingly complex genetics space,” said David Nixon, InformedDNA’s CEO, who will continue to lead the company. “Nearly a third of all tests are ordered in error, impacting patients, payers and providers negatively. This investment will allow our organization to bring our technology-enabled genetic expertise to the people and companies that need it most to help all audiences make better decisions to improve outcomes and lower costs.”
InformedDNA was founded in 2007, and was the first company in the U.S. to use telephonic services to connect genetic counselors to patients. Since then, it has expanded to provide technology-led services to patients, health plans, providers, health systems, and pharmaceutical and life science organizations. The company employs more than 85 genetics counselors offering services that guide providers’ clinical decisions, help shape clinical trial processes and enable insurers to understand and craft policies to guide ordering genetic tests in a cost-effective manner.
InformedDNA has experienced more than 50 percent annual growth in each of the last two years and doubled its genetic counseling staff since 2017, the news release said.
Baird served as exclusive financial advisor to InformedDNA while Foley & Lardner provided the company legal advice. Bass, Berry & Sims provided legal advice to TT Capital Partners, a healthcare investor in Minneapolis; NovaQuest, a life science and healthcare investor in Raleigh, North Carolina; and Frist Cressey, a Nashville, Tennessee firm focused on accelerating the growth of high potential healthcare enterprises.
In a related transaction, CIBC also provided a flexible credit facility to InformedDNA.
