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June 24, 2004

Handylab Announces $5.5 Million Series B Financing

Hewlett-Packard & SBV Venture Partners Join as New Investors

June 24, 2002-Ann Arbor MI-HandyLab, a company that develops microfluidic testing systems for immediate point-of-care diagnosis of infectious disease and genomic identification, announced today that it has completed its Series B funding of $5.5 million with both current and new investors. HandyLab's first products, now entering pre-clinical trials, are low-cost, disposable genotyping tests for infectious diseases.

Two new investors, SBV Venture Partners and HP (NYSE: HPQ), joined Series A investors Ardesta, EDF Ventures, the Wolverine Venture Fund, and XR Ventures in this round. All Series A investors increased their investment in HandyLab in this second round. The additional investment will fuel aggressive growth for HandyLab through stepped-up development of new infectious disease and biodefense pathogen detection chips as well as expansion of the management team. "We are very gratified with the financial and leadership support we have received from our new investors as well as from our first round partners. This reflects their belief in the future of our microfluidic technology and its role in fundamentally improving the way in which we identify pathogens, genetic susceptibility, and fight disease," said Michael D. Farmer, HandyLab President and CEO.

HP also plans to create a special-purpose PDA that will drive and control the HandyLab handheld diagnostic cartridge. "We are seeing more and more applications using HP handheld technology in diagnostics and patient care," said Mike Larson, senior vice president and general manager, HP Personal Systems Group. "There are excellent synergies between HandyLab and HP." As a new investor, SBV Venture Partners brought European funding to HandyLab for the first time. "We and our European partners view HandyLab as a company that has the potential to actually make point-of-care testing a reality across a broad range of applications," explained Jacques Vallee, SBV Venture Partners General Partner. "We view the potential for this rapid, low-cost, portable genotyping as an exceptional advance in the biotechnology field dominated by expensive lab-based technology."

"HandyLab's record of achieving all their development milestones over the past 18 months convinced us to increase our ownership position in the company in this round," said Tom Porter, General Partner of EDF Ventures. EDF Ventures led both financing rounds.