Dive Brief:
- Clear Labs has closed a $13 million Series B funding round, led by Wing Venture Capital and with other investments from Google Ventures, Tencent, Khosla Ventures and Felicis Ventures, according to a news release.
- The company also announced that Michael R. Taylor, former Food and Drug Administration deputy commissioner for foods and veterinary medicine, has joined its board of directors.
- Clear Labs says these two developments are ways to advance the company's proprietary Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) techniques and software and to expand its portfolio of NGS food tests and commercial operations.
Dive Insight:
Clear Labs' NGS technology can simultaneously benefit consumers on one end and retailers and manufacturers on the other. Consumers can better trust labels and claims that retailers and manufacturers make about their products thanks to increased transparency NGS technology offers.
Ensuring consumers' trust in a product's integrity is a clear benefit for manufacturers and retailers. But they also gain when they have a better understanding of their own supply chains. Increased transparency and traceability means better management of potential product recalls, including cost savings and other financial and reputation-related benefits.
With the information NGS technology can provide, manufacturers and retailers can also feel more confident in their label claims. Knowing that each level of their supply chain supports and abides by their own food safety and quality standards means less of a risk of litigation or consumer backlash if a brand uncovers an issue with one of its suppliers.
Government agencies already employ NGS and similar genome-based testing to ensure food safety and quality improvements. But as costs for these technologies continue to decline, they will become more accessible and scalable for manufacturers and retailers to use themselves to improve visibility and safety across their supply chains and potentially prevent recalls or other complications before they occur.