INVENT Ventures and Heliant Ventures Seek to Accelerate Personalized Medicine Research with Seed Round Investment in Sanguine BioSciences

VALENCIA, Calif., Feb. 21, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- SANGUINE BIOSCIENCES, INC. ("Sanguine"), a biotechnology company empowering patients in biomedical research, has announced the closing of its seed financing round, led by INVENT Ventures and Heliant Ventures.

Sanguine engages research subjects through social media and non-profit advocacy, and schedules blood draws, which are then processed into DNA, RNA, cells, plasma, and serum, to be used as biomedical research materials at pharmaceutical companies and research institutions. The company has developed the infrastructure to provide research subjects with information on how their samples were used, in order to ultimately increase trust and information flow back to researchers.

"Sanguine has experienced significant growth since Q4 2012, both in terms of revenues and number of research subjects. The successful completion of the laboratory and regulatory infrastructure allowed us the opportunity to open our doors to research participants, both healthy, and diagnosed with an ailment(s), and to researchers at numerous pharmaceutical companies and academic institutions.

We plan to use the funds raised in the seed round to further develop our internal infrastructure in order to safely and efficiently collect, process, document, and store up to 1,000 blood samples each month across the west coast. We are looking forward to scaling up and providing researchers with the samples they need to perform their investigations, while also providing patients with the knowledge of how their samples have impacted Personalized Medicine research." – Brian Neman, CEO

"Sanguine is building products and processes that will revolutionize personalized medicine research," said INVENT CEO Bryce Knight. "We are thrilled to support Sanguine and its exceptional team through their growth at the forefront of multiple rapidly-growing markets." 

"We are very happy to jointly lead this round of investment and to be connected to a company at the forefront of its industry. Sanguine's business model achieves that unique harmony between placing the patient interests first while still generating returns for all its stakeholders," said Heliant Ventures Director Ben Weiss. "Full credit to the hard-working Sanguine team for reaching this important milestone and we look forward to supporting the company to realize its exciting growth potential."

About Sanguine BioSciences Inc.
Sanguine BioSciences is a biotechnology company bridging the gap between patients and researchers by providing transparency throughout the personalized medicine R&D process. Sanguine collects and de-identifies patient-derived data in the form of biospecimen and physician and self-reported information. These data are generated and then made available to researchers involved in drug and biomarker research and discovery. (http://sanguinebio.com)

About INVENT Ventures
INVENT Ventures Inc. (OTC: IDEA) is a publicly traded venture fund that builds and invests in transformative technology businesses. INVENT primarily operates in markets of digital media, consumer Internet, and social networking, and has built six companies at various stages of development. (www.invent.vc.)

About Heliant Ventures
Established in 2012, Heliant Ventures is a venture capital fund backed by leading investors across Asia and Australia. (www.heliantventures.com)

SOURCE Sanguine BioSciences, Inc.; INVENT Ventures, Inc.