A daily newsletter summarizing recent activity & interesting startups globally
RECENT NOTABLE ACTIVITY – LIFE SCIENCE – SOFTWARE
- Chroma Code, a company offering software platform and assays for molecular biology has raised $12 million in Series B funding round led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA) with participation from Domain Associates and Okapi Ventures in April 2017. The funding will be used for development of ChromaCode’s High-Definition Polymerase Chain Reaction technology (HDPCR). Link
- Science 37 which offers solutions to support remote and decentralised clinical trials has raised $29 million in growth funding round led by Glynn Capital Investment \with participation from GV, Lux Capital, Redmile Group, dRx Capital and Sanofi Ventures in April 2017. Link
- CloudMine which offers Connected Health Cloud and data enablement platforms has raised capital from Series A1 round from Safeguard and MentorTech Ventures along with angel investors in April 2017.. Link
- ProCheck which offers solutions for anti-counterfeiting, operations management & data analytics to Pharma companies has raised $250 k in seed funding from Sarmayacar, a syndicate of foreign investors to promote Pakistani startups in April 2017. Link
- Repositive which allows individuals and researchers to access and share human genomic data has raised $ 3.13 million is Series A funding round from Ananda Ventures, Force Over Mass, and Amadeus Capital Partners in April 2017. Link
- Cluster Market, an online sharing platform for life scientists to list, discover and book resources within their institution or cluster has raised $ 3.12 k in in angel funding in April 2017. Link
- SHYFT which provides cloud-based analytics and data management platform for customer engagement and revenue analytics has raised $ 7.5 million from Optum in April 2017 as a part of Series B investment. The company had earlier raised $ 12.5 in Series B round announced in August 2016 from McKesson Ventures, Medidata Solutions, Health Enterprise Partners and Milestone Venture Partners. Link
- Vital trax offering patient engagement solutions for Clinical Trials has raised $ 150 k in seed financing from Digital Health Fund backed by Ben Franklin Technology Partners, Independence Health Group, and Safeguard Scientifics in March 2017. Link
- MYnd Analytics, a neuroscience company focused on improving the quality of treatment for patients with brain disorders, by providing objective information to prescribers has raised $ 1 million in strategic investment from RSJ Gradus fund which includes a right of first refusal to expand into Europe before the end of 2018. Link.
- Recursion Pharmaceuticals, a pharmaceutical discovery company has got $ 4 million credit facility from Square 1 Bank in February 2017. Link
- Perkin Elmer’s medical imaging business has been acquired by Varex Imaging on 1 May 2017. Link
- Mytrus, a clinical trials technology company that provides the web and mobile applications that enable patients to participate in clinical trials directly from their own homes has been acquired by Medidata in April 2017. Link
- The assets of OpenQ, provider of Key Opinion Leader (KOL) data base and software solutions to manage KOLs have been acquired by Anju Software, a life sciences software platform company in April 2017. Link
- Umetrics (MKS Instruments), a provider of software for the design of experiments and multivariate data analysis, and also for on-line continuous and batch processes has been acquired by Sartorius Stedim Biotech in April 2017. Link
- Bracket, a clinical trials solution provider offering eClinical tools, comprising of interactive voice and web response systems for subject screening, randomization, drug supply management, site management, and electronic patient reported outcomes has been acquired by Genstar Capital from Parthenon Capital Partners in March 2017. Link
SOME INTERESTING STARTUPS FOUND
Vital Trax (2016, Philadelphia) – Cloud based patient engagement platform for clinical trials.
Bio Bright (2016, Cambridge) – Developing an “internet of things” platform to make biology easier and more reproducible and to support data driven biological research.
Syllable Life Science (2016, Boston) – Machine learning based application to analyse human and lab-animal behavior at the time of drug trials
LEADER BOARD – LIFE SCIENCE – SOFTWARE
Bioinformatics
Metabolon (2000, Durham, $92.42M) provides platforms and informatics systems for biomarker discoveries and diagnostic tests and also offers metabolomics research services. Backed by Aurora Funds, Sevin Rosen Funds, Camden Partners Holdings, Essex Woodlands, HHVC, Sumitomo Corp, Syngenta, Alexandria Real Estate Equities, ATEL Capital Group, Fletcher Spaght, The Trelys Funds, Fulcrum Financial Group, Crossroads Capital.
BioNano Genomics (2003, San Diego, $101.4M) has developed a platform for imaging single molecules of DNA at megabase lengths, allowing the mapping of large chunks of the genome at great resolution.Backed by National Institutes of Health, Ben Franklin Technology Partners, Legend Capital, KT Venture, 21Ventures, Domain Associates, Innovation Valley Partners, Battelle Ventures, NCI, NHGRI, Novartis Venture Fund, and Monashee Investment
Pacific Biosciences (2004, Menlo Park, Public) has developed a Single Molecule Real Time (SMRT) sequencing platform that utilizes the company’s two proprietary technologies – Zero-Mode Waveguides (ZMW) and phospholinked nucleotides for single molecule sequencing.Backed by Morgan Stanley, Mohr Davidow Ventures, KPCB, DAG Ventures, Maverick Capital, AllianceBernstein, Sutter Hill Ventures, Alloy Ventures, Deerfield Capital Management, Deerfield, and Gen-Probe.
Simulations Plus (1996, Lancaster, Public) develops absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion, and toxicity (ADMET) modeling & simulation software for cheminformatics and drug discovery and provides consulting services.
Benevolent AI (2013, London, $87.7M) is an Artificial Intelligence company focussed on pharmaceutical R&D and drug discovery. The company has organised itself into two wholly owned, integrated and complementary subsidiaries: ‘BenevolentBio’ (formerly Stratified Medical) – will continue to focus on applying BenevolentAI’s technology in human health and the exploration of further bioscience applications such as veterinary medicine, and ‘BenevolentTech’ – will continue to refine and develop the AI engine that is driving the discoveries in bioscience and in future will look to replicate this success across wider applications and industries.
Inpharmatica (1998, Saffron Walden, $75M, Acq) offers predictive informatics solutions and services for medicinal chemistry and ADME to help improve the speed and productivity of drug discovery. It is also involved in research of drugs and biomarkers. Backed by Vertex Ventures, Advent Venture Partners, Gimv, Gilde, 3i Group, Abingworth, Unibio, and REV. Acquired by Galapagos in Dec 2006.
Schrodinger (1990, New York, $52M) develops software solutions for computational chemistry, research and drug discovery. Backed by Cascade Investment.
Imaging Solutions
Aperio Technologies (1999, California, $47.6M, Acq) offers digital pathology solutions including image management, sharing and analysis solutions. Backed by BlackRock, Advanced Technology Ventures, HLM Venture Partners, and Galen Partners. Acquired by Leica Microsystems in Aug 2012.
inviCRO (2008, Boston, $45.8M) provides advanced data analysis services and software in the field of preclinical imaging research.
Median Technologies (2002, Valbonne, $53.66M, Public) offers medical imaging software and services for oncology clinical trials, cancer screening, and clinical practice. Backed by NEA, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Auriga Partners, Abingworth, Omega Funds, Idinvest Partners, National Technology Enterprises Company, Kuwait Life Sciences Company (KLSC), and AGF Private Equity.
Clinical Trial Solutions
Medidata (1999, New York, $66.18 M, Public) provides cloud based solutions for clinical trial management and analytics. Backed by Insight Venture Partners, Milestone Venture Partners, Stonehenge Growth Equity, Silicon Alley Venture Partners, The Lambda Funds, State Street, and Alpha Venture Partners and went public in June, 2009.
Parexel (1983, Massachusetts, Public) is a clinical research organization which offers clinical trial management solutions and services. Backed by Capvis.
Datatrak International (1991, Cleveland, Public) offers clinical enterprise solutions which include tools for electronic data capture, trial design, trial supply management and project management.
Comprehend (2010, Palo Alto, $.8M) provides clinical data reporting and visualization tools for clinical trials. Backed by Y Combinator, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital, SV Angel, Menlo Ventures, Crosslink Capital, Quotidian Ventures, Ulu Ventures, Life Sciences Angel Network, and Easton Capital.
Go Balto (2008, San Fransisco, $38.1M) provides cloud-based electronic solutions for clinical trial design, data capture analysis. Backed by Qualcomm, Aberdare Ventures, Mitsui Global Investment, EDBI, West Health, and Dolby Family Ventures.
GRC Solutions
Metric Stream (1999, Palo Alto, $150M) provides solutions for quality management, regulatory compliance, risk management, and corporate governance. Backed by Goldman Sachs, KPCB, Integral Capital Partners, Gold Hill Capital, Sageview Capital, Saints Capital, Kaiser Permanente Ventures, Blade Ventures, Montage Capital, and The Camelot Group.
Virtify (2004, Lexington, $23.5M) provides enterprise content and compliance management solutions for the life sciences industry. Backed by Tudor Growth Equity, Blue Cloud Ventures, and Spring Lake Equity Partners.
Qumas (1994, Cork, $10M, Acq) provides Compliance and Quality Management Software for Life Sciences including solutions for document management, process management and submission management. Backed by General Catalyst Partners, Fidelity Ventures, Delta Partners, ACT Venture Capital, Fidelity Growth Partners Europe, Kernel Capital, and Eight Roads Ventures. Acquired by Accelrys in Dec, 2013.
Automation Solutions
Emerald Therapeutics (2010, San Francisco, $34M) has developed Emerald Cloud Laboratory that scientists can remotely access via the internet and can perform experiments using automated robotics. Backed by Founders Fund, Western Technology Investment, and Schooner Capital.
Quartzy (2009, Palo Alto, $28.8M) offers web-based platform for lab management and supports collaboration, inventory and order management. It also hosts catalogs from vendors for lab consumables. Backed by Y Combinator, Lerer Hippeau Ventures, SV Angel, Khosla Ventures, Washington U., Silicon Badia, Reinmkr Satsang, A Capital, Life Science Angels, Science House, Accelerator Tech, Lerer Hippeau Ventures, and Eminence Capital.
Market Intelligence
IMS Health (1954, Danbury, Merged) offers a suite of market intelligence products and services which are aimed at improving productivity and healthcare delivery of healthcare organizations.
CitiusTech (2005, Princeton, $112 M) offers Business Intelligence and healthcare analytics platform. Backed by General Atlantic.
SHYFT Analytics (2005, Waltham, $39M), formerly Trinity Pharma Solutions, provides cloud-based analytics and data management platform for customer engagement and revenue analytics. Backed by Milestone Venture Partners, Health Enterprise Partners, Medidata, and McKesson Ventures.
Zephyr Health (2011, San Francisco, $33.5 M) offers Zephyr Illuminate, an Insights-as-a-Service platform designed to help companies improve product life cycle performance with customer and market insights and can be used for collaboration, targeting and segmentation, and planning. Backed by KPCB, Jafco Ventures, and Icon Ventures.
Sales and Marketing
Veeva Systems (2007, San Francisco, $ 4 M, Public) offers Content Management, Customer Relationship Management, Customer Master data management and related software and services to the life sciences industry. Backed by Lead Edge Capital, and Emergence Capital. Went public in October 2013.
Aktana (2008, San Francisco, $25 M) offers sales force solutions and customer relationship management solutions for life sciences industry. Backed by Safeguard Scientifics, and Starfish Ventures.
Operations Management and Supply Chain
Tracelink (2009, Woburn, $77 M) offers an online platform for global distribution, visibility and traceability of pharmaceuticals to limit the sale of counterfeit drugs. Backed by FirstMark Capital, Goldman Sachs, Volition Capital, and F-Prime Capital Partners.
Bluechiip (2003, Scoresby, Public) provides wireless tracking solutions for bio samples and other products. Went public in Oct, 2010 via a reverse takeover by Sofcom Limited.
Leaderboard includes all the top funded, IPO and successfully running bootstrapped companies along with their location, founding year and funding amount.
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