Money Moves: Quest Diagnostics to acquire Haystack Oncology for up to $450M

April was jam-packed with notable raises, investments, grants and contracts — or, as both Technical.ly and Cardi would call it, “Money Moves.” Here are some of the most prominent, starting with a non-tech one (because come on, we are a Ravens Nation) before moving into big news for a biotech company.

Lamar Jackson inks league-high $260 million contract

Multiple reports confirmed that Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson signed a new five-year contract with the Baltimore Ravens, valued at $260 million. The sum for this contract, which the record-setting QB signed mere weeks after saying he was requesting a trade, makes him the highest-paid player in the league. While not tech-related, this news is significant for Baltimore and its football fans. 

Lamar Jackon. (GIF from Tenor.com)

Quest Diagnostics brings Haystack Oncology under its umbrella

New Jersey-based clinical lab company Quest Diagnostics has agreed to acquire one of Baltimore’s fastest-rising tech companies, Haystack Oncology. This Remington-based and Johns Hopkins-spawned biotechnology company, which landed near the top of Technical.ly’s 2023 RealLIST Startups, is set to be acquired for up to $450 million. The deal will involve $300 million in cash paid at the closing, with an additional $150 million potentially paid if future performance milestones are met.

This transaction comes only two years after Haystack Oncology’s inception and is expected to close in the second quarter of this year. CEO Dan Edelstein clarified in an email that although Quest is purchasing “both the technology AND importantly, the team that is developing it,” he doesn’t anticipate many changes to day-to-day operations. Moreover, he said that Haystack’s team will keep growing in advance of a scalable launch at some point next year. 

“The acquisition will add a proprietary best-in-class liquid biopsy test to Quest’s portfolio of oncology services for the first time, strengthening the company’s commitment to improve outcomes for patients,” he said. “Over time, providers will be able to access clinical testing services based on Haystack’s innovations as part of Quest’s portfolio of oncology services.”

“Partnering with Quest Diagnostics enables us to accelerate Haystack’s test development and get it into the clinic faster than we could do it on our own,” he added.

Marinalife sails on with $500,000 from TEDCO 

Marinalife, an online boat slip reservation service HQed on East Fort Avenue, has announced additional investment through its Series A round. Claritas Capital is leading the investment — with participation from TEDCO, the Maryland Momentum Fund (which both boast relationships to major state institutions) and the Abell Foundation — to help Marinalife execute its vision of providing innovative marina technology solutions. TEDCO specifically invested a half-million in Marinalife’s SaaS platform to support boaters and marina management.

In a press release provided to Technical.ly, Marinalife CEO Jen Leroux praised these investors’ commitment toward a shared goal. 

“Marinalife strives to grow the technology side of the marine industry, giving marinas and boaters the capability to do what they love with ease,” Leroux said. “Together, we look forward to scaling Marinalife and enhancing boater’s and marinas’ life on the water.”

Founder Dan Cowens added in the statement that Maryland, with its rich boating traditions, “has been and continues to be the perfect home for a company like Marinalife.”

A Youth Participant During B-360 Day Programming In 2023. (Courtesy Photo By Javon Roye)

B-360 lands $1 million grant for country’s first dirt bike campus

The Cleveland Avenue Foundation for Education (CAFE Group) recently recognized Baltimore’s own Brittany Young, the founder of B-360, as a 2023 Luminary and awarded her organization a $1 million grant. CAFE Group’s website explains that Cleveland Avenue was the childhood street of its founders, Don and Liz Thompson, with Liz growing up in Chicago’s Cabrini-Green housing complex — an intended model of successful public housing that turned into a national symbol of urban blight and failed housing policy — and Don living just four blocks north. The foundation aims to honor the founders’ past while striving for a boundless future beyond the blight, which is not unlike that faced in Baltimore.

B-360 uses dirt bike culture to teach STEM and disrupt the prison pipeline for nonviolent offenders. The $1 million grant will assist B-360 in building the nation’s first dirt bike campus in Baltimore, providing a safe space for riding and expanding STEM programs. B-360 aims to raise $10.5 million for this project.

“Since my brother was incarcerated for a nonviolent offense, I knew that our youth needed more support and more options,” Young explained in a press release. “I believe in this work so much that I’ve been doing it as a full-time, unpaid volunteer. This moment is a reminder that it is all worth it.”

“We hope that this is not just a seed in B-360, but it is a seed in Baltimore City, and a seed for Black-led organizations every day doing the work in disrupting prison pipelines,” Young added. 

Here’s who else made recent Money Moves in Baltimore:

• Novel Microdevices, a biotechnology company based in the Holabird Industrial Park neighborhood, has received a $200,000 investment from TEDCO. The investment, made through the State Small Business Credit Initiative’s funding, will support the company’s mission to provide faster and more informed patient care by delivering the most accurate diagnostic results. 
• “Fuel Demo Day was poppin’,” as described on FastForward U’s Facebook page. The Monday night competition resulted in ThermoBeat, represented by senior undergrad Will Blair from Johns Hopkins’ Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, earning the $12,000 Grand Prize.  The $3,000 Cohort Prize was awarded to Aptabridge, led by W. Taylor Cottle, a graduating Ph.D. candidate from the university’s School of Medicine. The $5,000 Audience Choice award went to MagGenix, headed by senior undergrads from the biomedical engineering program. Read more about the participants in our latest article.