I attended 20/20 GeneSystems’ invitation-only annual shareholders meeting in Washington, D.C., two weeks ago. And I learned some very interesting things.
We first recommended 20/20 to you in December 2017. The company offers affordable multicancer detection tests, using artificial intelligence to make them highly accurate.
The company reported a 10X increase in tests done during the last quarter (compared with the average of the previous three quarters). That’s great news. But more interesting to me is where the company is now focusing its marketing efforts and how much progress it’s making on those efforts.
20/20 is increasingly targeting the 1.1 million firefighters in this country because studies show they’re at a higher risk of developing various cancers at younger ages, including lung, stomach and esophageal.
20/20 has signed up several firefighting departments in the local Washington, D.C./Maryland area (where it’s based) to market its products. And it’s now vetting regional and national representatives to expand its marketing efforts.
The company is also making progress in marketing outside the U.S., especially in the Middle East. It expects to start offering its product in the United Arab Emirates this quarter, with Jordan (already generating the first test revenue from outside the U.S.) and Egypt soon to follow. And 20/20 expects its cancer detection tests to become commercially available in Germany and Austria before the end of the year.
Asia remains an important region for the company. As I reported in my last update, two major hospitals in Taiwan are in the final stages of testing 20/20’s OneTEST. The company is launching sales in Taiwan and Japan this month. And 20/20 CEO Jonathan Cohen expects sales to begin in China, India and Singapore before the end of 2019.
In short, the company is on the verge of seeing its product development and marketing efforts result in a major upswing in domestic and global revenue.
20/20 has also been busy raising funds for its increased marketing activities. It raised $5 million over the past five months. If all goes according to plan, its growing sales will give 20/20 the impetus it needs for the next planned raise of $10 million to $15 million. And Jonathan tells me that he hopes to do an additional public offering soon after that raise.
Based on 20/20’s recent progress and its plans to beef up its sales and marketing teams in the U.S. and globally, we believe the company is getting closer to a period of rapid revenue growth that will dramatically boost its current valuation. And that’s good news for early investors.
Good investing,
Andy Gordon
Co-Founder, First Stage Investor