Benchling

Benchling is based in San Fransisco and was founded in 2012 by Sajith Wickramasekara, Ashutosh Singhal and Cory Li of MIT. The company focuses on life science collaboration, both private and public, through creating cloud based software tools for digital DNA sequence editing, designing and running experiments, analyzing data, and sharing research.



Products and services

Electronic lab notebook

Benchling software includes an electronic lab notebook that allows researchers to document their experiments. Benchling claims their notebook software reduces data entry time by up to 85%. 

Molecular biology suite

The molecular biology suite is an integrated, all in one, interface offering CRISPR guides, automation of primer designs, plasmid visualization, sequence alignment, and other relevant biological and chemical software tools.

Bioregistry

The bioregistry is a fully integrated platform for creating, organizing, and documenting workflow for biologists, particularly for sequence editing and strain engineering. Benchling designed the bioregistry to track and assign features to organisms, import data from standardized databases, and give biologists the power to take notes within the bioregistry itself.



Sample tracking

Bechling offers an inventory tracking system with their software. The system allows for the tracking of individual samples, containers, and instruments within the lab.

Workflow management

Benchling offers a workflow management systems that helps to design and manage work, provide feedback on progress, identify workflow bottlenecks, and improve decision making.



Funding

Angel round

On December 1, 2012 Benchling became the first synthetic biology company to be backed by Y Combinator and received $900,000 in funding from: Y Combinator, FF Angel, Draper Associates, and other angel investors. 

Seed

On April 15, 2015 Benchling raised $5,000,000 in seed funding from Andreessen Horowitz, Thrive Capital, and Kevin Mahaffey. The funding helped Benchling grow their software engineering and customer support teams.

Series A

On October 3, 2016 Benchling completed their series A funding round, raising $7,000,000 from Thrive Capital. 

Partnerships

Gen9

On November 16, 2016 Benchling announced its partnership with Gen9 — a company making making synthetic DNA. The partnerships between the two companies seeks to make it easier for customers to order large DNA libraries from Gen9 using Benchling's online software.