Pharma Tech Startup TrialSparks Closes $156 mln Series C Funding Round

Trial Spark, a pharma tech startup based in New York, has closed a $156 million Series C funding round to reimagine clinical trials.

The round was co-led by Sam Altman and Lachy Groom, with participation from new and existing investors like Sequoia Capital (Series A lead), Thrive Capital (Series B lead), Casdin Capital, Dragoneer, Section 32, John Doerr, Spark Capital, Felicis Ventures, Sound Ventures, and Arrowmark. Kareem Zaki, General Partner at Thrive Capital, referred to the round by stating:

“Trialspark is building a new type of pharma company that has the potential to dramatically expand patient access to new treatments and align key stakeholders in drug development. We are excited to be on this consequential and ambitious journey with them.”

The startup was founded in 2016 by computational biologist Benjamine Liu and Linhao Zhang to develop an innovative clinical trial engine that accelerated the process by integrating the back-end and front-end aspects of clinical trials. The result is enhanced study quality and speed at a lower cost, while also allowing researchers to access the data in real-time to improve monitoring. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, referred to legacy clinical trial engines

“A lot of people complain about the mournful cost of bringing a new drug to market, but TrialSpark is actually doing something about it. Clinical trials are needlessly complex and expensive, and this directly contributes to the cost of drugs and keeps many promising drugs from ever coming to market. TrialSpark can fix this.”

With the Covid pandemic being one of the most recent events to highlight the importance of improving the frameworks being used for clinical trials, the pharma tech startup has been able to attract the attention of investors and major organizations. Now, it will be focusing its efforts on escalating its team to boost the development of its revolutionary technology.