Funding profile · Rapid diagnostics

Clip Health

Luminostics, Inc. raised about $53 million across nine years and never filed a Form D. More than eight dollars in ten came from the federal government, almost all of it in one pandemic contract.

$53.0MTotal funding, company-stated in the May 2023 sale memorandum
$43.9MFederal contracts and grants verifiable in public records
$3.5MVenture capital across the company’s whole life, company-stated
0Form D filings on SEC EDGAR, under either company name

Data as of September 24, 2026. Company-reported figures are labeled.

Rounds at a glance

When Round Amount Investors or funder Source
2016 Y Combinator, Summer 2016 Not disclosed Y Combinator YC data
Nov 2016 Seed financing Not disclosed separately Khosla Ventures, Y Combinator; Lynette Capital named in later reporting Company and press
2016 to 2020 NIAID small business grants $2,670,173 NIH NIAID, five awards NIH RePORTER
Sep 30, 2020 RADx Tech Phase 2 contract 75N92020C00029 $39,067,500 obligated and outlaid NIH, with BARDA funds USAspending
Aug 30, 2021 Contract FA821021C0001, test kit production expansion $2,000,000 US Air Force USAspending
Through 2023 Strategic partnership revenues $3.5M Not named Company-stated
May 2023 Asset sale process, all or substantially all assets Bids due Jun 9, 2023 Run by Gerbsman Partners Sale memorandum

What the records show

Luminostics, Inc. · NIH contract 75N92020C00029 · signed Sep 30, 2020

Program
RADx Tech, Advanced Technology Platforms Phase 2
Published budget
$26,120,000
Obligated
$39,067,500, paid in full
Period
Sep 30, 2020 to Sep 29, 2023
Record
USAspending and NIH RePORTER; recipient listed in San Jose, CA

Luminostics, Inc. · Air Force contract FA821021C0001 · signed Aug 30, 2021

Obligated
$2,000,000
Period
Aug 30, 2021 to Feb 26, 2022
Record
USAspending; recipient listed in Milpitas, CA

Luminostics, Inc. d/b/a Clip Health · asset sale memorandum · May 10, 2023

Assets
3 issued patents, 4 pending, trade secrets, manufacturing equipment under lease
Licence
Core glow-in-the-dark patents held under exclusive licence from the University of Houston
Debt
No secured debt obligations
Revenue
“Clip Health currently has no recurring revenues from product sales or collaborations.”
Bid deadline
Jun 9, 2023, 3:00 pm Pacific; $200,000 refundable deposit; close within 7 business days
Record
Gerbsman Partners, published on behalf of the company

Reading the records

  1. Federal money was five sixths of the company.Contracts and grants that can be checked in public records come to $43,937,673. Against the $53 million total the company reported in May 2023, that is 82.9 percent. Venture capital, at $3.5 million, was 6.6 percent.
  2. The RADx award grew by half after it was announced.NIH published a budget of $26,120,000 for the Luminostics award, and the company announced a $26.1 million contract in October 2020. USAspending records $39,067,500 obligated and fully paid on the same contract number, 49.6 percent above the published budget.
  3. Every venture dollar pulled in about twelve federal dollars.$43,937,673 divided by $3,500,000 is 12.6. Raising $3.5 million of equity and then spending $44 million of public money is a ratio almost no diagnostics company gets to run, and it existed only while the RADx window was open.
  4. There is no Form D, and that is not an anomaly.EDGAR holds no company record at all for Luminostics, Inc. or Clip Health, and full text search returns the name only inside Sanofi 6-K filings from 2020. Offerings sold under Section 4(a)(2) rather than Regulation D produce no Form D, and $3.5 million spread over accelerator instruments and one seed close is small enough to have moved that way.
  5. The authorization was retired before the assets were.The company asked the FDA to withdraw EUA202907 on May 2, 2023, the agency revoked it on May 5, and the sale memorandum went out on May 10. An emergency authorization with no product behind it is a compliance obligation rather than an asset, so it was cleared off the books first.

Commercial signals

Signal Detail Source type
Regulatory EUA202907 issued Dec 7, 2020, revoked May 5, 2023 at the company’s request. No 510(k) and no premarket approval on record. Public record
Manufacturing More than 700,000 units produced; line capacity stated at more than 40 million kits a year, validated under a Department of Defense inspection in 2022. Company-stated
Distribution Alercell, of Bozeman, Montana, announced US distribution on Apr 28, 2021. Partner-stated
Partnership Sanofi agreement of Apr 16, 2020 to evaluate a consumer self-test. No authorized product followed. Partner-stated
Current status No completed sale found on the public record. Neither cliphealth.com nor luminostics.com served a web page when checked in September 2026. Not found

What to watch

  • Patent assignment records moving the three issued families away from Luminostics, Inc.
  • Whether the University of Houston licence was reassigned or reverted.

The Clip Health story on Healthcare DiscoveryHealthcare Discovery

Related companies

  • Scanbase: Similar focus. An API that turns a phone photo of a rapid diagnostic test into a result, sold to the companies that make and ship the tests
  • Scanwell Health: Similar focus. A Los Angeles company that turned a phone camera into a urinalysis reader and sold the first over-the-counter urine testing app in the United States
  • Lucira Health: Similar focus. The first fully at home COVID test, then the first at home flu test
  • Bikanta: Similar focus. A Berkeley startup that licensed a fluorescent nanodiamond imaging platform out of the NIH, sold it as a research reagent, and ran out of money before it reached a

Sources

  1. Public recordContract 75N92020C00029, Luminostics Inc., RADx TechUSAspending · signed Sep 30, 2020
  2. Public recordContract FA821021C0001, Luminostics Inc.USAspending, US Air Force · Aug 30, 2021
  3. Public recordRADx funding list, awardee Luminostics, Inc.NIH
  4. Public recordNIH RePORTER, seven awards to Luminostics, Inc.NIH · FY2016 to FY2021
  5. Public recordRevocation of EUA202907FDA · May 5, 2023
  6. Public recordEDGAR company and full text search for Luminostics and Clip HealthSEC · accessed Sep 23, 2026
  7. CompanyDate Certain M&A of Clip Health, its assets and intellectual propertyGerbsman Partners · May 10, 2023
  8. CompanyClip Health company and founder profilesY Combinator · accessed Sep 23, 2026
  9. IndependentUniversity of Houston spinout’s smartphone-based COVID testInnovationMap · Aug 16, 2021

Compiled from SEC, NIH, FDA and federal spending records and published reports as of September 24, 2026. Form D notices report offerings under Regulation D; no Form D was located for this company, and the absence of one does not mean no securities were sold. Healthcare Venture Capital Fund holds no position in Clip Health. This page is not an offer to sell or a recommendation to buy any security.