€811k · Other round · Healthtech · Uppsala, Sweden
Uppsala-based Readily Diagnostics has received an €811k grant from the Gates Foundation to develop an affordable point-of-care molecular test for chlamydia, gonorrhoea and trichomoniasis. The company's 27 August announcement and EU-Startups describe the award as funding for early concept and feasibility work, not an equity round or a finished commercial product.
The project covers sample preparation, detection of antimicrobial-resistance markers and a roadmap for product development. Readily says the test is intended for primary care, family-planning and HIV-prevention settings in low- and middle-income countries, where access to central laboratories can be limited.
Moving molecular STI testing out of central labs
Readily's platform uses padlock probes to recognise pathogen sequences, followed by rolling-circle amplification and a visual readout. The company says its approach can return a yes-or-no result in 15 to 30 minutes without laboratory instruments, cold-chain logistics or specialist operators. Those are development claims: Readily also states that its tests have not yet been authorised, cleared or approved for marketing by a regulatory body.
The grant is therefore aimed at proving whether the platform can carry more of the diagnostic workflow into a compact test. A useful STI product has to do more than identify an infection. For gonorrhoea, the planned resistance-marker component could help guide treatment instead of relying only on symptoms or empirical prescribing. The World Health Organization has identified accurate point-of-care tests, ideally able to predict which antibiotics will work, as part of the response to drug-resistant gonorrhoea.
That combination creates a demanding product brief. Readily must integrate direct sample handling, multiplex detection and resistance information while keeping the test affordable and usable outside central laboratories. The Gates Foundation grant can fund feasibility work around those constraints, but clinical validation, manufacturing quality and regulatory approval remain later steps before the technology can support treatment decisions at scale.
One platform, a new clinical target
Founded in 2022 as a Uppsala University spin-out, Readily originally developed its instrument-free molecular platform for respiratory infections. The STI programme tests whether the same core chemistry can be adapted to a different sample type and multiple pathogens without rebuilding the system from scratch.
That platform reuse is commercially relevant because each validated target could extend the value of the underlying detection method. It also raises the execution bar: the new programme must show that technical flexibility survives real-world requirements around sensitivity, resistance markers, cost and field use. A separate €1.6m capital round announced in 2024 supported product development and in-house production capacity; the current €811k award is a distinct grant focused on STI-test feasibility.
