One of Peak Ridge Capital’s venture capital funds, the Peak Ridge AgTech Fund, has made its first equity investment in agricultural technology company Rapid Diagnostek.

The initial investment is a USD4m series B syndicated investment, of which the AgTech Fund was the lead investor.

Rapid Diagnostek is a privately-held diagnostics company based in Hudson, Wisconsin and focused on the use of proprietary microelectronic biosensor technology for initial use in animal and food diagnostics.

The testing device is a handheld instrument that can read a specimen sample and determine the presence of a given target bacteria or illness. Results are generated in 60 seconds and can be transmitted electronically to any location.

Rapid’s platform technology can expand into human diagnostics, biowarfare, environmental and food safety testing.

"The investment in Rapid Diagnostek is consistent with what we envisioned when we created the AgTech Fund," says Michael McNally (pictured), chairman and chief executive of Peak Ridge Capital. "The company is highly scalable, provides an invaluable solution to real-world problems in the agricultural industry and also has the ability to be highly valuable in other industries.”

Harry Norris, chief executive of Rapid Diagnostek, adds: "We are pleased to have a global firm like Peak Ridge Capital leading this round of investments. We believe our unique diagnostic technology platform will be increasingly important for the development of innovative, new diagnostics products in the agricultural industry, and also has the ability to be broadly applied in other vertical markets. We are very excited to have Peak Ridge as a partner and to be able to tap into their contacts and resources."

McNally has also joined the board of directors of Rapid Diagnostek.

The Peak Ridge AgTech Fund is a private equity fund focusing on financing innovation in agriculture, clean technologies and biofuels. The fund invests in companies with key agricultural technologies that provide solutions in areas of food supply, lowering cost of production and improving efficiency in the supply chain. In addition to the agricultural supply-side, the fund is also investing in clean technologies, as well as chemicals, systems and improvements in the biofuel process.