Allergy testing and treatment company Nectar raised $16.5 million in a Series A funding round led by Harmony Partners, bringing its total equity raise to more than $24 million. 

The company's founding partners, Juxtapose and Obvious Ventures, also participated in the round — Obvious Ventures co-built Nectar with the company's current CEO and former AncestryDNA executive Kenneth Chahine.

WHAT THEY DO

Launched in June, Nectar is an allergy testing and treatment provider that offers at-home testing kits. It's planning to open physical clinics. 

The company currently offers home kits where an individual can self-test for 38 indoor or outdoor allergies and send their sample back to Nectar for results. The tester can then connect with a licensed physician through Nectar's virtual platform and receive Nectar's patent-pending formulated treatment plan, which includes sublingual drops targeting the individual's specific allergy to train the immune system to tolerate the allergen over time. 

Nectar will use the Series A investment to scale its virtual platform nationwide in 2023, open a physical location for comprehensive allergy treatment and fund clinical studies. 

"Allergy care is a $450 billion market opportunity with no clear leader. Dr. Chahine's impressive track record, including his role in founding AncestryDNA and Ancestry Health, makes him the perfect leader to build and grow Nectar," Patrick Chun, cofounder and managing partner of Juxtapose, said in a statement. 

MARKET SNAPSHOT

In March, Nectar raised $8 million in seed funding to launch the company, which is the consumer-facing brand of healthcare holding company Nectar Life Sciences. 

More than 50 million Americans experience various types of allergies each year, and allergies are the sixth leading cause of chronic illness in the United States, according to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America.