Traceability firm rfXcel raises 'transformative' $30m

Track and trace solutions provider rfXcel has raised $30m in second-round funding.

The California-based tech firm that creates traceability solutions for the life sciences and food and beverages industries says it plans to use the investment to forward several growth areas. These include: accelerating the delivery of supply chain solutions; increasing resources to extend its Internet of Things (IoT) partnership with Verizon; and expanding its global geographical presence in the Americas, Europe, Middle East and Asia Pacific.

"This partnership allows rfXcel to accelerate its market growth and extend its leading-edge technology," said Glenn Abood, co-founder and chief executive of rfXcel. "Our mission is to protect patients and combat the illegal counterfeit pharmaceutical market and this capital provides us with the means to broaden our reach in this battle."

The investment will also allow the firm, which was founded in 2003, to keep up-to-date with technological changes and shifting market needs, he said.

The funding from Kayne Partners – which has invested more than $600m in various platform investments in the past decade – will provide "transformative capital" to rfXcel, said Leon Chen, managing director of Kayne Partners.

"rfXcel offers customers a long-term strategic solution to gain insight and visibility into their supply chains," said Chen, who will join rfXcel's board of directors as part of the investment deal. "rfXcel has developed a track record of building great technology and partnering with customers in life sciences and other industries to build strong business relationships and solve complex challenges."

rfXcel has been steadily growing over the past few years. In May last year, rfXcel joined forces with American wireless network provider Verizon to deliver Verizon's Intelligent Track and Trace solution. The partnership saw rfXcel leveraging Verizon's network and Internet of Things platform 'ThingSpace' (which connects different internet-linked devices) to enable pharma firms to provide real-time monitoring of product temperatures, location and other attributes along the supply chain, as well as detect counterfeit drugs more easily and address issues such as cargo theft, diversion and safe handling.

At the start of last year, the company released a next generation compliance and serialisation platform that improves scalability to handle hundreds of millions of serial numbers and was designed to meet compliance in the US, China, South Korea and the EU, among other countries. The update also enhanced existing barcode scanning functionality where data received from a barcode can now be automatically directed to multiple fields thereby eliminating any potential for data entry errors.

rfXcel is also an associate member of the National Association of Chain Drug Stores to provide support to programmes and initiatives for drug stores and improve serialisation, traceability and compliance solutions for drugs stores and dispensers.

The Series B financing round was led by private equity and investment firm Kayne Partners.