On-Q-ity, which announced a $21 million Series A round today, is a combination of two other Mohr Davidow companies — CELLective Diagnostics and The DNA Repair Company — that would have languished and probably died had their investors and scientists not figured out a way to keep their technology alive, said Mohr Davidow’s Sue Siegel.

Both companies had the misfortune of looking for a Series B round in the summer of 2008 — a slow season to begin with — and then getting hit with the global financial collapse that followed.

“They found themselves not able to raise a financing, not because of the merits of the technology, but because of the environment and the circumstances that existed,” Siegel said. “Many companies didn’t get financing, and you’ll find a graveyard of companies where either the technology was shelved or it got delayed or they’re subsisting on minimal dollars until they see another day.”

The idea of combining the companies came from the scientists at DNA Repair — who saw a technical fit with CELLective– from Siegel and a couple of other Mohr Davidow