Sequoia is a venture capital focused on energy, financial, enterprise, healthcare, internet, and mobile startups. The firm helps a small number of daring founders build legendary companies. It spurs them to push the boundaries of what’s possible. The firm seeks to invest in all sectors with a focus on energy, financials and financial services, healthcare and healthcare services, Internet, mobile, outsourcing, and technology.

Sequoia Capital

Thrive Capital is a venture capital investment firm that focuses on building and investing in Internet, software, and technology-enabled companies.

Thrive Capital

Spark Capital is an early-stage venture capital firm that invests in exceptional products and the creative individuals behind them. Known for embracing risk and a unique approach, Spark Capital has backed companies like Twitter, Discord, Anthropic, Cruise, Niantic, Oculus, Warby Parker, and Tumblr. Recognizing that there are no set playbooks or formulas for success, the firm supports founders in achieving success on their own terms. Spark Capital invests across all sectors and stages, operating out of San Francisco, Boston, and New York City.

Spark Capital

Felicis Ventures is a venture capital firm based in Menlo Park, California. The firm invests in seed through Series C stage companies across multiple sectors and industries reinventing core markets, as well as those creating frontier technologies. Felicis currently manages over $2B in capital across 8 funds. The firm is an early backer of more than 40 companies valued at $1B+. More than 90 of its portfolio companies have been acquired or gone public since the firm was founded by Aydin Senkut in 2006.

Felicis

ArrowMark Partners is an SEC-registered investment adviser. It aims to provide consistent, asymmetric, non-correlated, risk-adjusted returns by utilizing fundamental research across the capital structure. They are committed to compounding wealth by providing one-of-a-kind, client-driven, and absolute return solutions.

ArrowMark Partners

Casdin Capital is a fundamental research investment firm focused on the life sciences and healthcare industry. It manages a long-short equity fund and makes investments in early-stage to late-stage private investments.  Casdin was launched in 2012 by founder and CIO Eli Casdin and as of October 2020 has approximately $2.2 billion in assets under management.

Casdin Capital

Dragoneer is an investment firm that focuses on disruptive businesses and experiences at the intersection of public and private markets. The firm seeks to invest in seed, early-stage, growth, and later-stage businesses. The firm was founded in 2012 by Marc Stad and is headquartered in San Francisco, California, United States.

Dragoneer Investment Group

Sound Ventures is a venture capital firm. The company seeks to invest in the technology sector.

Sound Ventures

Section 32, the new venture fund launched by Bill Maris, was named in homage to Section 31, an intelligence agency from the Star Trek universe.  Maris, the GV (Google Ventures) founder/former-CEO, has raised $150 million for the project that will focus on various investments.  The fund will be run directly by Maris and primarily based out of San Diego.

Section 32

Hyphen Capital is a syndicate which invests in multi-stage companies started by AAPI founders. LPs in Hyphen include prominent AAPI founders and executives including Katrina Lake (Stitch Fix), Steve Chen (YouTube), Debby Soo (OpenTable), Deb Liu (Ancestry), Eric Ly (LinkedIn), Sam Yam (Patreon), Gokul Rajaram (DoorDash) and many others.

Hyphen Capital

Andreessen Horowitz is a venture capital firm specializing in investing in seed, start-ups, early, mid-stage, growth, and late-stage. It prefers to invest in the social media business and technology sector with a focus on software, back-end infrastructure, the infrastructure of the Internet, cloud computing, enterprise software and services, consumer, business Internet, mobile-Internet, consumer Internet, cloud computing, data storage, social network browsers data-storage, consumer electronics, networking functions, software related biology, biotech, and medicine companies at the intersection of computer science and life sciences with a focus on digital therapeutics, cloud technology in biology, and computational medicine.

Andreessen Horowitz

SV Angel is a San Francisco-based venture fund. Their experience spans helping companies like Airbnb, Coinbase, Databricks, DoorDash, Faire, Flexport, GitHub, Notion, Pinterest, Snap, Square, and Stripe Scale. Over the last 30 years of investing, their core values of trust, loyalty, and integrity along with a founder-first approach have driven our strategy. They are a service organization, investing in founders who share these values. They support entrepreneurs in building lasting companies by assisting at key inflection points and leveraging networks to help them propel their businesses forward.

SV Angel

Sanofi offers research, development, manufacturing, and marketing of innovative therapeutic solutions. It covers areas such as diabetes solutions, human vaccines, innovative drugs, consumer healthcare, emerging markets, animal health, and the new G enzyme.

Sanofi

Emerson Collective is an organization dedicated to removing barriers to opportunity so people can live to their full potential. Established and led by Laurene Powell Jobs, we center our work on education, immigration reform, the environment, and other social justice initiatives. We use a wide range of tools and strategies—partnering with entrepreneurs and experts, parents and policymakers, advocates and administrators—to develop and execute innovative solutions that will spur change and promote equality.

Emerson Collective

FPV Ventures is a venture capital investment firm.

FPV Ventures

Formation Bio

January builds and enforces trust in consumer finance. Borrowers in delinquency and default face harassment, hidden fees, and harmed credit scores. Creditors lose out on recoveries, expose themselves to compliance and operational risks, and compromise the trust on which their relationships with borrowers are built. January works with borrowers who fall behind on their loans to achieve financial stability, while helping creditors modernize their collections.

Formation Bio is a biotechnology company that focuses on drug development to provide new treatments to patients faster by reimagining clinical trials.

Formation Bio (previously known as TrialSpark) is a clinical trial technology company focusing on connecting research sites with new studies and clinical trials via its platform solution. The company claims that its platform can reduce the time between selection and activation to 1-2 weeks in total.

Incorporating technology to improve efficiency and success rate of clinical trials

Clinical Trial Technology

Sanofi, OpenAI, Formation Bio debut patient recruiting tool, will use in Phase 3 multiple sclerosis studies

To develop "Muse," an AI-powered tool designed to optimize patient recruitment for clinical trials.

Companies that offer software solutions for identifying and evaluating potential trial sites, along with documentation and workflow management systems to complete the processes before launching, including electronic patient consent and other required regulatory tasks.

OpenAI

To develop an AI-powered tool that optimizes patient recruitment for clinical trials by analyzing literature and real-world data to generate research, strategies, and materials in minutes, addressing low participation rates.

To leverage novel methods to help identify and bring new drugs to market.

January

Third Prime

Brewer Lane Ventures

IA Ventures

Reciprocal Ventures

Tribe Capital

Bread Ventures

Merck

Merck has entered into an out-licensing agreement for sprifermin with TrialSpark/High Line Bio.

Pfizer

To extend Pfizer clinical trials to community doctors who have not previously been study investigators.

This is the use of software, incorporating AI and Machine Learning technology to improve the matching process of patients with suitable clinical trials.

Novartis

To implement a patient-centric model for clinical trials by leveraging TrialSpark's technology.

Formation Bio (previously known as TrialSpark) is a clinical trial technology company focusing on connecting research sites with new studies and clinical trials via its platform solution. The company claims that its platform can reduce the time between selection and activation to 1-2 weeks in total.In addition to supporting research sites, Formation Bio also connects with doctors and patients, providing a holistic solution for clinical trials. In terms of business growth, the company is exploring opportunities in the drug development space.Key customers and partnershipsThe company’s pharmaceutical partners include Novartis, Pfizer, Sanofi, and Aditum Bio.In <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/35915">November 2024</a>, the company partnered with Sanofi, and OpenAI have collaborated to develop "Muse," an AI-powered tool designed to optimize patient recruitment for clinical trials. The tool analyzes scientific literature and real-world evidence to generate comprehensive research, recruitment strategies, and patient materials in minutes instead of months.

Headquartered in Amsterdam, Castor is a cloud-based e-clinical data platform that can be used for a range of tasks and processes during a clinical trial. It offers four solutions: 1) electronic data capture (EDC) to capture and process data from multiple sources including researchers, 2) electronic patient-reported outcomes (ePRO) to collect and manage patient-reported data on a centralized platform, 3) e-consent - to enable patients to be recruited, screened, and enrolled remotely, and 4) a decentralized clinical trials (DCT) platform to assist operators with managing DCT technologies and devices through a central platform. The company’s solutions are targeted at industries like biotech and pharma, diagnostics, and clinical research organizations. Its solutions are built in line with industry-standard compliance and data protection standards including HIPAA, GDPR, and ISO 27001.Castor aimed to collect enough clinical trial research data to enable the reuse of data for AI-driven clinical trials, which would lower the costs of operating clinical trials and reduce the time taken to bring new drugs to market.Key customers and partnershipsAs of June 2024, the company had supported 14,000+ studies and 6 million patients through clinical trials across 90+ countries, since launching in 2007. In terms of therapeutic areas, Castor had supported a range of different areas, including oncology, cardiovascular diseases, and diabetes. The company had been engaged by 500+ organizations, including the World Health Organization, Click Therapeutics, and Stryker. It was the first to incorporate machine learning into its system for the identification of Covid-19 patients. The company offered free access to its system for Covid-19 research projects, with over 200 projects using the platform as of June 2022. In February 2024, the company partnered with Microsoft to use Microsoft Azure to bring modern AI to clinical trials. The feature was released to help Castor users develop their studies faster by simplifying complex tasks in the study build process. The company additionally noted that it was planning to release its first in a line of Practical AI features to all its users in public Beta. Funding and financialsThe company raised USD 45 million in Series B funding in July 2021, led by Eight Roads Ventures and F-Prime Capital. The funds were earmarked for product development, interoperability with partner systems, and market research on decentralized trials. The company had a headcount of 150 at the time of the Series B and was planning to expand to 200 by the end of 2021.

Castor

Florence Healthcare offers a platform for clinical trial management. It has four key components: 1) SiteLink to start-up and monitor remote clinical sites, 2) eBinders to digitize and store research binders, 3) eConsent to simplify and digitize the consent process, and 4) Electronic Trial Master File to digitize the storage and transfer of files between sites and research sponsors. The platform is compliant with standard industry requirements including HIPAA, 21 C.F.R Part 11, ICF/GCP, and GDPR.Key customers and partnershipsAs of June 2024, Florence supported over 18,000 research sites, across 55+ countries, with key customers including Pfizer. The usage of the company’s software tripled in 2020, driven by an industry shift toward digitalization as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. In February 2022, the company was ranked as the best clinical trial platform out of a group of 190 for ease of setup, ease of use, and customer support.Florence partnered with Greenphire, a company focusing on patient convenience and financial management for clinical trials, in Janauary 2024. Through the partnership, Florence's platform will be integrated with Greenphire's to improve payment systems within clinical trials. Benefits of the partnership included reduced manual work for sites, faster payments, and better visibility of site activity for sponsors and Contract Research Organizations (CROs). Funding and financialsThe company raised USD 80 million in Series C funding in May 2021 led by Insight Partners. The proceeds were to be used to scale up its sales and marketing teams and improve the value proposition of the platform by reducing the time required by customers to implement and manage clinical trials.

Florence Healthcare

Huma is a UK- and US-based clinical trial tech startup that provides a digital platform to manage clinical trials, including decentralized clinical trials. The platform can be used throughout the clinical trial process, including patient recruitment, screening, electronic consent, clinical outcome assessments, patient-reported outcomes, and telemedicine. The platform is built up to industry standards in data privacy and security, including ISO 27001, 21 C.F.R. Part 11, and TxP.In June 2023, the company <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/19352">received FDA 510(k) Class II FDA clearance </a>for its configurable disease-agnostic platform, including its cardiovascular risk score algorithm. The company received this FDA clearance in partnership with Health Canada and it allows Huma's platform to be used to monitor patients of all ages with any condition, including pediatrics and pregnancy. The Class II clearance also enables the platform to host algorithms that provide automated AI-driven data analytics for diagnosis, screening, clinical decision-making, predictions on health outcomes, and recommendations on dosage.In July 2024, the company was <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/31552">estimated to be valued at nearly USD 1 billion</a> when it secured a Series D investment of USD 80 million. Key customers and partnershipsSome of the key partners working with Huma include AstraZeneca, Johnson &amp; Johnson, Bayer, Stanford University, and the University of Cambridge. As of July 2024, the platform supported 3,000+ hospitals and clinics, screened over 35 million individuals, and had 1.8 million active users across 70 countries. Huma was awarded the 2021 Prix Galien Award, which is widely considered the “Nobel Prize” for pharmaceuticals and life sciences.The company announced a partnership with Xyla Elective Care in June 2022, to provide support to the UK’s National Health Service in delivering and managing virtual wards.

Huma

Based in California and founded in 2015, Medable is a digital clinical trial management platform with a range of modules for different processes. These modules include a decentralized clinical trial platform to support decentralized trials using remote tools for data gathering, monitoring, televisits, and consent; digital patient screening to screen patients remotely and at scale; e-consent to enable patients to digitally consent for clinical trials; electronic clinical outcome assessments; and patient-reported outcomes to document data in real time and provide easy access for researchers. It also includes remote patient monitoring to make it easy for patients to record and share data with clinical research teams.Medable operates on a SaaS business model, with customers having the option of selecting and deploying only the modules required as part of their uniquely customized solution.In <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/32647">August 2024</a>, Medable launched 'Medable Studio', an all-in-one application for configuring, translating, validating, and launching electronic clinical outcome assessment (eCOA) Plus solutions (which include eCOA, e-consent, televisits, and sensors) into clinical trials. The no-code suite aimed to simplify the complex eCOA launch process, offering biopharmaceutical companies greater control and transparency. Medable Studio includesda point-and-click builder for creating assessments and instruments, a visual schedule of assessments builder, a translation workbench, and a content library. The platform enabled users to rapidly build and launch complex clinical trials, with the ability to create protocol-fit study designs in hours instead of months.In <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/35913">November 2024</a>, Medable launched Medable AI, a suite of GenAI capabilities integrated into its Studio platform. The suite aimed to streamline digital and decentralized clinical trials for sponsors and research organizations. The AI suite features automated eCOA creation that converts existing outcome assessments into a digital format, a ChatGPT-like interface for editing assessments, and scalable assessment-generation capabilities.&nbsp;As of <a href="https://hitconsultant.net/2024/10/30/medable-partners-with-google-cloud-to-accelerate-clinical-trials/">October 2024</a>, the company offered its platforms across 60 countries and was used across 300 decentralized and hybrid clinical trials. The company’s platform is compliant with industry standards, including HIPAA, FDA’s 21 CFR Part 11, and GDPR.Key customers and partnershipsAs of <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240607926468/en/Medable-Wins-2024-Prix-Galien-UK-Award-for-Best-Digital-Health-Solution">June 2024</a>, Medable claimed to work with 14 out of the top 20 pharmaceutical companies, in addition to working with a range of partners, including Cognizant, Accenture, Oracle, and PwC.In <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/35456">October 2024</a>, the company partnered with Google Cloud to offer its decentralized clinical trial platform on Google Cloud's marketplace. The collaboration combined Medable's clinical trial technology with Google Cloud's infrastructure and AI capabilities to streamline trial processes.In <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/29843">May 2024</a>, Medable partnered with Masimo, a medical technology provider, to incorporate new wearable devices in clinical research. Medable announced it would include the MightySat Rx pulse oximeter by Masimo in its platform for various major clinical trials, particularly in lung and breast cancer research.In <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/22394">October 2023</a>, the company partnered with Pluto Health, a healthcare coordination company, to enhance the clinical trial experience for participants and improve data collection during trials. Through the partnership, the companies aimed to connect patients to the right medical resources including access to clinical trials and home delivery of medication.&nbsp;In <a href="https://www.fiercebiotech.com/biotech/gsk-taps-medable-decentralized-clinical-trials-patient-diversity">September 2022</a>, the company announced a four year agreement with GlaxoSmithKline to use Medable’s platform for clinical trials across multiple products. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Medable

Headquartered in New York, Obvio Health provides a full service for clients, supporting them throughout the clinical trial process from the design and recruitment stages to outcome measurement and reporting. In addition to its technological platform, the company provides professional services to execute clinical trials using its in-house clinical operations team. The platform caters to 17 therapeutic areas, including cardiology, oncology, respiratory, men's and women's health, dermatology, gi, hepatology, mental health, oral health, and infectious disease (Covid-19). The platform is compliant with industry standards including 21 CFR Part 11, ICH-GDP, GDPR, and ISO 27001.According to the company, its platform was designed from the ground up to cater to digital trials run by virtual clinical teams, which resulted in faster patient recruitment (three months for Obvio compared to 12 months for physical site trials). In January 2022, the company launched an augmented electronic patient-reported outcome (augmented ePRO) module, which incorporates AI and manual scoring by experts/clinicians. The company claims this improves the accuracy and quality of data collected.In April 2024, the ObvioHealth launched ObvioGo 2.0, an enhanced platform and mobile application designed to meet the unique needs of trial sites and sponsors. The upgraded platform allows the combination of hybrid and virtual trial designs within one study. It includes features such as the ability to create site-specific workflows, integration with other clinical systems, and a streamlined translation process. Additional features include a built-in virtual assistance team, COACH, for trial tasks support and a patient identifier tool for patient registration and data correlation.As of June 2024, the platform catered to 17 therapeutic areas, including cardiology, oncology, respiratory, men's and women's health, dermatology, GI, hepatology, mental health, oral health, and infectious disease (Covid-19). The platform is compliant with industry standards including 21 CFR Part 11, ICH-GDP, GDPR, and ISO 27001. Key customers and partnershipsAs of June 2024, Obvio Health’s client base included companies like GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, Bayer, Danone, and General Mills. As of June 2024, the company’s operations were spread over 28 countries and had supported obtaining consent from 40,000+ patients across 40 clinical trials since its launch.In March 2022, Obvio partnered with Renovia to conduct the first fully virtual trial in urogynaecology, based on Renovia’s Leva device. The device helped patients with performing kegel exercises more effectively, in addition to monitoring compliance over the trial period.In November 2023, Obvio then partnered with Chemist Warehouse, the largest retail pharmacy chain in Australia, to improve the reach and efficiency of clinical trials. Through the partnership, Chemist Warehouse agreed to promote ObvioHealth-managed trials to its customers in Australia, using both offline and online channels. Additionally, ObvioHealth agreed to utilize Chemist Warehouse's Telehealth services for studies that require clinician assessments. The collaboration aimed to increase the awareness and convenience of clinical trials, addressing two major hurdles in participant recruitment. The long-term goal of the partnership was to expedite the introduction of innovative therapies to the market more efficiently and economically. Funding and financialsThe company raised USD 31 million of Series B funding in June 2021 led by Dedalus Group and Novotech Health. The investment was primarily strategic, with Obvio benefiting from its Dedalus partnership in terms of European clinical trial compliance, while it became Novotech Health’s preferred virtual clinical trial provider.

Obvio Health

Companies offering data and workflow management platforms and solutions to assist with the operational management of a clinical trial, including site management, monitoring processes in terms of risk and documentation, and payment automation.

Companies using remote patient monitoring tools and other connectivity solutions to enable remote collection of patient data and monitoring and run trials virtually, without requiring the patient to be physically present in the clinical trial site.

Companies that offer workflow management platforms that are used to manage logistics tasks and processes for clinical trials, primarily the randomization of assigning patients in a clinical trial and automation of logistics workflows based on clinical trial data.

Includes companies that provide digital data management platforms to collect and store patient reported outcome data. These platforms are also incorporating data analytics to help understand the results and identify trends and patterns. Additionally, the platforms are enabling connectivity with remote monitoring devices, including Medical Internet of Things.

Companies that provide software tools that help with the design of clinical trials, including identifying protocol violations, collecting participant input on potential design ideas for the trial, and crowdsourcing of protocol ideas for clinical trials.

Companies that use GenAI as a core part of their product offering for Clinical Trial Tech

Startups in this hub use IoT to support report patient monitoring and data gathering

AI/ML algorithms can be used to automate the analysis of patient data

Offers digital platforms that accelerate clinical trials and evaluations

Most CTT platforms are offered on a B2B basis to companies carrying out clinical trials

Startups in this hub seek to improve clinical trial diversity by including underrepresented communities

Clinical Trial Technology providers incorporate GenAI to enhance their platform’s capabilities and utility

Foundation Models

PROMINENT_CATEGORY

<div>
 OpenAI Formation Bio and Sanofi have formed a collaboration to introduce Muse, an artificial intelligence (AI) enabled tool formulated to enhance patient recruitment for clinical trials.
 The tool, Muse, harnesses scientific literature and real-world evidence to speed up patient recruitment strategies and the creation of relevant content. It has the ability to produce materials for recruitment, devise pre-screening questionnaires, and plan strategies catering to a variety of patient groups.
 Sanofi will head the first implementation stage of Muse in Phase III multiple sclerosis studies. Both Sanofi and Formation Bio have future plans to utilize Muse in other upcoming clinical trials. To ensure safety and privacy, the tool integrates IRB and regulatory guidelines while upholding AI safety measures and data privacy norms.
 
</div>

Formation Bio

EDGE Insights

About EDGE

Contact Us

Resources

Area of Focus

Technology Research Made Effortless