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BenchSci

BenchSci

BenchSci is a biotechnology company with a machine learning platform for researching biological compounds. It was founded in 2015 and is located in Toronto, Canada.

About

BenchSci is a Toronto-based company with a focus on developing technology with artificial intelligence so it can be used to expedite the research and discovery process for medicinal drugs. The technology is a platform that can be utilized for research purposes and can give researchers specific information on their intended experiment, thus reducing time spent on researching and planning materials.

Product

The company has two platforms: the AI-Assisted Reagent Selection and the AI-Assisted Antibody Selection. The former platform has the capability of selecting the reagents for an experiment in as little as thirty seconds, whereas traditional research would take weeks. The latter platform aids researchers with finding appropriate products for the experiments using a database of more than 10 million scientific publications. The sources have been given independent validations from organizations such as The Human Protein Atlas and Encode. The academic versions of the platforms are free to appropriate institutions and the platforms can be accessed via payment for enterprise and commercial purposes.

Company

BenchSci was founded in 2015 by Tom Leung, David Q Chen, Elvis Wianda, and Liran Belenzon. Tom Leung was researching cancer when an inappropriate antibody caused him to lose rare patient samples. He contacted machine learning and data experts David Q Chen and Elvis Wianda at the University of Toronto to find out if machine learning could help choose appropriate antibodies in the future. Liran Belenzon (now CEO) met the team at the Creative Destruction Lab and together they built, tested, and validated a solution to preclinical research waste.

The company launched commercially in July 2017 with its first application, the AI-Assisted Antibody Selection platform. BenchSci's products have been used by fifteen top twenty pharma companies and over 41,200 scientists working at more than 4,450 institutions worldwide.

BenchSci raised CAD$2.75 million in three seed rounds in 2016 and 2017, led by Golden Ventures and Real Ventures. In two Series A funding rounds, they received CAD$10.2 million (May 2nd, 2018) and CAD$6.7 million (June 26th, 2019), led by Inovia and Gradient Ventures (Google's AI fund), respectively. On February 4th, 2020 BenchSci raised USD$22 million in Series B funding, bringing its total raised to USD$45 million. The lead investor was F-Prime Capital, with participation from Northleaf Capital Partners and existing investors, including Gradient Ventures, Inovia Capital, Golden Ventures, and Real Ventures. F-Prime senior vice president Shervin Ghaemmaghami will join BenchSci’s board of directors.

On November 17th, 2021, BenchSci was named a Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Company, ranking 19th. The Deloitte Technology Fast 50 program is a Canadian technology awards program. To qualify, companies must have been in business for at least four years, have revenues of at least $5 million, be headquartered in Canada, own proprietary technology, conduct research and development activities in Canada, and invest a minimum of five percent of gross revenues in Research and Development.

Timeline

January 24, 2022
BenchSci raises a $63,000,000 series C round from TCV and iNovia Capital.
February 4, 2020
BenchSci raises a $22,000,000 series B round.
May 2, 2018
BenchSci raises a $8,000,000 series A round.

Funding Rounds

Patents

Further Resources

Title
Author
Link
Type
Date

1: Welcome to BenchSci!

Web

August 30, 2019

43 Pharma Companies Using Artificial Intelligence in Drug Discovery

Simon Smith (he/him)

Web

BenchSci raises $22 million for AI-powered drug discovery tools

Kyle Wiggers

Web

February 4, 2020

We Are Trying To Build The Greatest Canadian Success Story In History: BenchSci CEO | Forbes India

Karen Christensen

Web

November 28, 2019

Welcome to the BenchSci Platform

Web

February 1, 2018

News

Title
Author
Date
Publisher
Description
Charles Mandel
September 9, 2021
BetaKit
Medical AI company BenchSci the addition of Inovia Capital partner and former Research In Motion CFO and COO Dennis Kavelman to its board of directors.
BioSpace
June 17, 2021
BioSpace
Steve Hitchcock, Philip Larsen, and Philip Tagari named science advisors, providing BenchSci with global industry expertise to realize its vision of using machine learning to bring novel medicine to patients 50% faster by 2025.
BenchSci
November 26, 2020
www.prnewswire.com:443
/PRNewswire/ -- BenchSci today announced an agreement to analyze world-class research from Taylor & Francis Group's top scientific journals using advanced...
Liran Belenzon
April 7, 2020
BetaKit
BenchSci founder and CEO Liran Belenzon shares his journey on how discovering counselling helped him become a better leader and how it can help others as well.
Meagan Simpson
February 4, 2020
BetaKit
<p>BetaKit has partnered with TradeRev on a new event series investigating the future of Canada's AutoTech industry. Event Schedule 6:00-6:30 pm: Doors Open &...</p>\n

References

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