KeraFAST Closes on Series A Financing with FCA Venture Partners to Scale Its Unique Marketplace for Life Science Research Products

KeraFAST, Inc., an e-commerce company providing "Extraordinary Products...from Extraordinary Scientists", announced today that it has closed on a Series A financing with FCA Venture Partners. FCA is the venture capital management arm of Clayton Associates, a holding company established in 1996 by healthcare entrepreneur R. Clayton McWhorter. KeraFAST serves as the on-line source of next generation research tools for life science laboratories worldwide. The company’s e-commerce catalog offers an incomparable assortment of unique bioreagents, rare materials, compounds, solutions, labware and services. Their innovative “Investigator's Annexe™” program partners with universities and other life science research institutions to make investigators' rare and unique laboratory-derived materials available to the global research community.

In The Investigator’s Annexe™, KeraFAST offers a unique way to extract value from sunk cost assets located in academic laboratory freezers by selling them online and sharing revenue aggressively with the source institution and investigator from each product sold.  According to Life Science Insights, approximately $80B is being spent annually on life science research in publicly financed universities, hospitals, institutions, and government laboratories worldwide, and additionally, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies are spending more than $35B on R&D globally. There are more than 100,000 laboratories and 1 million scientists worldwide. The reagents and consumables market alone is $17B worldwide, with the U.S. accounting for 40% of the total market.

Robert Bondaryk, PhD, CEO, who previously held senior management positions at Fisher Scientific, Cogenics Division of Clinical Data, Proteome Systems and other life science firms, leads the company. “We are extremely pleased to partner with FCA Venture Partners for the next phase of our growth,” said Dr. Bondaryk.  “FCA brings a wealth of experience building medical and technology businesses to KeraFAST, and together we anticipate a major and rapid expansion of our opportunity in the on-line life science research tools market. KeraFAST was formed by KeraNetics, LLC in 2010 in Winston Salem, NC, and wasspun-out as an independent C-Corporation in 2011. The Company is in the process of relocating to Boston, MA.

Matt King and John Burch of FCA Venture Partners will serve on the KeraFAST Board of Directors. This investment comes from FCA Venture Partners V, the firm’s fifth fund, which is focused on technology enabled healthcare and digital media companies. “KeraFAST is led by an experienced management team with 50 years of relevant industry background. The company’s highly disruptive and scalable business model creates a vibrant marketplace allowing greater efficiency within this healthcare related industry”, said Mr. King. “We have been following the company for a significant amount of time and are very pleased with the company's progress to date. The company will accomplish significant revenue growth and product enhancements during 2012 as well as ramping up their online marketing efforts.”

About KeraFAST, Inc. KeraFAST, Inc., provides "Extraordinary Products...from Extraordinary Scientists", serving as thenext generation research tools on-line marketplace for life science laboratories worldwide. KeraFAST offers an incomparable assortment of unique bioreagents, rare materials, compounds, solutions, labware and services through its e-commerce catalog. The Investigator's Annexe™ program partners with universities and other life science research institutions to make investigators' rare and unique laboratory-derived materials available to the research community. For more information, visit http://www.kerafast.com