NextGen Jane, which is looking to commercialise reproductive health technology partially developed at Harvard, has received $9m from investors including Harvard-affiliated backers.

NextGen Jane, a US-based developer of smart tampons based partly on Harvard University technology, has secured $9m in a series A round that included a group of angel investors from the university. The consortium also included investors from Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School and Stanford University. The round was led by company builder Material Impact and included Access Industries, Viking Global Investors and Liminal Ventures. Founded in 2014, NextGen Jane has developed a smart tampon that collects reproductive health data by sampling DNA and RNA from cells shed from the reproductive tract during menstruation, potentially facilitating earlier diagnosis of conditions that currently take years to identify. Cell samples are scanned at a sequencing laboratory to detect genomic classifiers indicative of reproductive diseases such as endometriosis, a condition where tissue replicating the lining of the womb spreads into the ovaries and fallopian tubes. NextGen Jane has created a beta model of its product and will use the funding to expand its scientific dataset in reproductive health. It intends to commercially release the product in 2020. The company raised $2.2m from undisclosed investors in 2016 according to a regulatory document, and received up to $100,000 in convertible note financing when it joined genomics technology provider Illumina’s accelerator in 2015. Ridhi Tariyal, co-founder and chief executive of NextGen Jane, said: “Menstrual effluence acts as a natural biopsy of the female reproductive tract, enabling unprecedented access to tissues for diagnosing diseases. “Decoupling sample collection from the clinic is a simple but effective way to expand access to care for many underserved populations.”

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