Funding profile · Point of need diagnostics

LSK Technologies

A University of Toronto spinout that raised small cheques from an incubator fund, an accelerator and angels, never closed the seed round it announced, and sold itself in May 2022 for undisclosed terms. It filed no Form D.

$100KVelocity Fund pre-seed, Feb 2020, that fund’s largest cheque
US$150KY Combinator, Summer 2020 batch, per the university
About $350KTotal raised by Dec 2020, investor-stated
$500KFederal grant for COVID-19 field testing, LSK as partner
ZeroForm D notices filed by the company on SEC EDGAR

Data as of September 23, 2026. Company-reported and investor-reported figures are labeled.

Rounds at a glance

When Round Amount Investors Source
Feb 27, 2020 Pre-seed, pitch competition award $100,000 Velocity Fund, half from its first micro fund, half from its new health tech fund Incubator release
Summer 2020 Accelerator US$150,000 Y Combinator, Summer 2020 batch University
By Dec 2020 Cumulative About $350,000 Mix of angels, small funds and non-dilutive sources Investor
2020 to 2021 Federal grant, LSK as supporting partner $500,000 Canadian Institutes of Health Research per the university; an investor called it a Government of Canada partnership grant Institution stated
2021 Seed round, announced target $2,000,000 None named. No close was ever announced Company stated
May 2, 2022 Acquisition Not disclosed Nicoya Lifesciences, Kitchener, Ontario Announcement and counsel record

What the filings show

There are none. A Form D search returns no Regulation D notice filed by LSK Technologies Inc. or Life Sciences Key Technologies. Two EDGAR entities carry similar names. Both are set out below so they are not mistaken for it.

Fund FG-LSK, a series of Forge Investments LLC · Form D and amendments · 2019 to Apr 23, 2026

What it is
A Delaware series LLC at 4 Embarcadero Center, San Francisco
Manager
Forge Global Advisors LLC, the secondary market platform
Filings
Eleven notices between Nov 2019 and Apr 2026
Why it is not LSK
It filed before LSK Technologies existed and four years after LSK was acquired. Forge series funds hold secondary positions in large late stage private companies
Filing
SEC EDGAR, CIK 0001793227

LSK BioPartners, Inc. · Form D · Aug 1, 2018 and May 10, 2019

What it is
A separate US medical device issuer
Regulatory record
FDA 510(k) K123476, MEGA 5.5 SPINE SYSTEM, cleared Jan 8, 2013
Why it is not LSK
Spinal implants, a US filer, cleared seven years before LSK was incorporated
Filing
SEC EDGAR, CIK 0001748803

Reading the filings

  1. The absence is expected, not suspicious.Form D is filed by issuers relying on Regulation D. A Canadian company whose disclosed backers were a Waterloo incubator fund, a student run venture group and Canadian angels has no reason to appear in EDGAR. The absence means no Regulation D offering was noticed, not that no money moved.
  2. Two thirds of the disclosed money came from two cheques.The Velocity award of $100,000 and the Y Combinator investment of US$150,000 account for roughly $250,000 of the approximately $350,000 an investor reported in December 2020, leaving on the order of $100,000 from angels and non-dilutive sources.
  3. Grant money exceeded equity.The $500,000 federal award LSK supported as a partner is larger than every disclosed equity cheque combined. No award number was published, so it cannot be matched to a database entry.
  4. The seed round became the exit.The company said in 2021 it was completing a $2 million seed. No close was announced. Nicoya’s chief executive told BetaKit that LSK was looking to raise before the acquisition took place. The deal landed about a year after the seed target was published.
  5. Nothing values the exit.Terms were not disclosed, and the transaction appears in outside records only as a counsel credit and trade press. Three employees, both founders among them, moved to a buyer with more than 100 staff. That ratio is the clearest available signal of scale.
  6. The buyer moved away from the thesis.Nicoya said in 2022 it would sell LSK products under its own brand and pursue point of care uses over time. Its June 2025 purchase of Applied Photophysics, financed by its existing syndicate led by Graphite Ventures with debt from SWK Holdings, positioned it around biologics characterization for drug discovery, with no diagnostics product named.

Commercial signals

Signal Detail Source type
Regulatory No Health Canada company record or licence for LSK, Life Sciences Key or Nicoya, checked Sep 23, 2026. No FDA clearance. Products were research use only in 2022. Public record
Orders 20 pre-orders and 7 letters of intent as of December 2020. No customer has ever been named publicly. Investor
Pricing PLUM-HT listed with price on request. Build cost cited at about $350 in 2018 and about $500 US in the 2022 and 2026 papers. Company and papers
Deployments Ecuador, Brazil, Colombia and Canada. Devices cited by catalogue number in two PLOS ONE papers. Public record
Evidence Four peer reviewed papers from 2022 to 2026 use PLUM. No registered trial found. Public record
Intellectual property US provisional 62/982,323, filed Feb 27, 2020 by the University of Toronto and assigned to LSK Technologies Inc. No granted patent found. Public record

What to watch

  • Any device licence or clearance naming Nicoya, which would show the platform reaching a regulated market.
  • A granted patent descending from the February 2020 provisional, which would show whether the hardware IP was carried forward.
  • Nicoya’s own financing. Its 2025 acquisition used an existing syndicate plus debt, a different posture from the venture rounds of 2020 and 2021.
  • Whether FluoroPLUM stays an academic open source instrument or returns as a product.

The LSK Technologies story on Healthcare DiscoveryHealthcare Discovery

Related companies

  • MedMe Health: Shared investor: Graphite Ventures. Web software that lets pharmacies book, document and bill vaccinations, minor ailment visits and chronic care checks
  • Avro Life Science: Shared investor: K Velocity Fund. Two University of Waterloo first years set out to put a generic allergy pill into a sticker
  • Zergo: Shared investor: Velocity Fund. A Waterloo nanotechnology team built a cannabis breathalyzer, then pointed the same electrochemical sensor at fertility hormones in urine
  • Vena Medical: Shared investor: Velocity Fund. A sub-millimetre camera that looks forward from inside a brain artery, and a balloon catheter built to pull a clot out on the first try

Sources

  1. Public recordSEC EDGAR Form D search for LSK Technologies, no resultsSEC · Sep 23, 2026
  2. Public recordForm D/A, Fund FG-LSK, a series of Forge Investments LLC, CIK 0001793227SEC · Apr 23, 2026
  3. Public recordForm D notices, LSK BioPartners, Inc., CIK 0001748803, and FDA 510(k) K123476SEC and FDA · 2013 to 2019
  4. Public recordDevice company and licence searches, no matchHealth Canada MDALL · Sep 23, 2026
  5. Public recordValidation of new equipment for SARS-CoV-2 diagnosis in EcuadorPLOS ONE · Apr 16, 2025
  6. IndependentNicoya acquires LSK TechnologiesBetaKit, Josh Scott · May 2, 2022
  7. IndependentNicoya expands into molecular testing with acquisition of LSKGenomeWeb · May 2, 2022
  8. IndependentLSK Technologies Inc. acquired by NicoyaFasken · May 23, 2022
  9. InvestorBehind the Deal: LSK TechnologiesFront Row Ventures, Jonny Hsu · Dec 11, 2020
  10. IncubatorFive startups take home $300K as Velocity unveils its 2nd pre-seed fundVelocity · Feb 27, 2020
  11. UniversityThis is the place to scale up virus testingUniversity of Toronto Entrepreneurship · 2021
  12. CompanyNicoya completes acquisition of LSK TechnologiesBusiness Wire · May 2, 2022
  13. CompanyNicoya Acquires Applied PhotophysicsNicoya Lifesciences · Jun 10, 2025
  14. CompanyLSK Technologies PLUM-HT product page and about pagelifesci-key.com · accessed Sep 23, 2026

Compiled from SEC, FDA and Health Canada public records and published reports as of September 23, 2026. Form D notices report offerings under Regulation D; the absence of a notice does not mean no capital was raised. Healthcare Venture Capital Fund holds no position in LSK Technologies or Nicoya Lifesciences. This page is not an offer to sell or a recommendation to buy any security.