OPT Industries
OPT Industries has raised $15 million in a Series A funding round led by venture capital firm Northpond Ventures.
The MIT spin-out has developed a proprietary additive manufacturing system which it scaled up during the COVID-19 pandemic to manufacture its InstaSwab COVID testing swab. A 14,000-square-foot manufacturing facility was opened last year, and the company has now attracted $15m in investment. UK-based point of care diagnostics company LumiraDx has also added the InstaSwab to its list of approved naval swabs for COVID-19 testing.
OPT Industries’ early success has been built upon seven years of R&D work at MIT which saw the development of its RAMP roll-to-roll 3D printing platform, which is said to enable the printing of ‘continuous materials at unlimited lengths with micron-level precision.’ The first product to be manufactured and made available to market with this technology is the InstaSwab, which OPT says is more effective in bacterial sample elution and viral sample elution. OPT is confident its technology will also be applicable for products in the automotive and consumer goods industries.
“As an advanced manufacturing company, we see the value in building micro-scale technologies that solve macro-scale challenges,” commented Jifei Ou, founder and CEO of OPT. “OPT works with customers to design and manufacture a novel range of metamaterials and products for the healthcare, automotive, cosmetics and consumer goods industries and beyond. We will leverage the new financing to address the demand for InstaSwab, fuel product development, scale operations and grow the team.”
“In the field of material science, metamaterials is a fast-developing area that holds enormous untapped potential,” offered Andrea Jackson, Director at Northpond Ventures. “OPT’s platform is uniquely capable of designing materials with advanced properties and superior performance across a range of applications including absorption, cushion, insulation and more. The InstaSwab – made of precisely engineered fibrous structures, each thinner than a human hair – exemplifies one of the standout innovations in novel metamaterials. OPT’s technology enabled the design of a more sensitive medical diagnostic test, resulting in real-world impact on patient care.”
Existing investors Crosslink Capital and the MIT-affiliated E14 Fund also participated in the funding round.
