Bold Capital and Bold Longevity Growth join strategic partners and previous investors as the platform moves towards commercialization for products in rheumatoid arthritis and cancer
Aqtual, Inc., a precision medicine company using its novel active chromatin cell-free DNA (cfDNA) platform to develop products for chronic diseases and oncology, today announced it has raised $31 million in Series B funding. Three new investors, including Bold Capital and Bold Longevity Growth Fund, joined previous investors Genoa Ventures, Manta Ray Ventures, and Yu Galaxy in participating in the oversubscribed round. Additional capital was also provided by a strategic investor in the diagnostics space, further strengthening Aqtual’s ability to advance the platform and its applications as it moves towards the commercialization of Aqtual’s first flagship product: a therapy response prediction test in rheumatoid arthritis (RA).
Aqtual is actively enrolling RA patients in a prospective observational clinical trial, PRIMA-102 (ID NCT05936970). The trial, with more than 1,300 patients enrolled, has delivered initial proof-of-concept data and is expected to be completed in Q4 2025. RA treatment remains highly individualized, with many patients cycling through multiple therapies before achieving disease control. In the U.S. alone, RA contributes over $19 billion annually in direct healthcare costs, excluding the broader burden of reduced quality of life, disability, and premature mortality.
“The Aqtual team combines deep technical brilliance with remarkable resilience and ingenuity,” said Lawrence Barclay, Managing Partner at Manta Ray. “Over the past year, we've seen powerful signals of technical and early commercial validation – not only in their lead indication, but across a broad range of chronic diseases and cancers – demonstrating the platform’s potential for wide-reaching impact in molecular diagnostics. It’s been a pleasure to work with them over the years, and Manta Ray is excited to support this next pivotal step toward commercialization.”
Aqtual’s proprietary active chromatin cfDNA platform is the first to integrate DNA, epigenetic regulation, and protein-DNA binding in a single, blood-based assay. Its proprietary approach enables high-fidelity quantification of tissue-specific gene regulation directly from blood through integrated profiling of disease, microenvironment, and systemic immune response.
“This raise marks a key inflection point for cfDNA diagnostics—not just for Aqtual, but for the broader field,” said Diana Abdueva, Ph.D., co-founder and CEO of Aqtual. “Our platform uniquely captures the biology of chronic disease, enabling deeper insights to support more effective treatment planning strategies. With this funding, strengthened by backing from a strategic partner, we’re positioned to advance our internal pipeline and forge new partnerships that extend the impact of our platform across disease areas.”
Aqtual will present new data and commercialization plans at major rheumatology and diagnostics meetings in the second half of 2025, including the Congress of Clinical Rheumatology (CCR) West, the Coalition of State Rheumatology Organizations (CSRO) Advocacy Conference, and American College of Rheumatology (ACR) Convergence 2025.
For more information, please visit www.aqtual.com.
About Aqtual, Inc.
Aqtual, Inc. is a precision medicine company developing products for chronic disease management and oncology utilizing a novel cell-free DNA-based platform. Aqtual’s proprietary platform evaluates protein regulation, epigenetics, and transcriptomics solely using cell-free DNA fragments found in the blood. The platform yields efficient and robust real-time analysis of disease and treatment while overcoming the limitations of previous cell-free DNA methodologies.
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Contacts
Andrea Vuturo
Vuturo Group for Aqtual
andrea@vuturo.com
+1 (415) 689-8414