- Leading life sciences R&D cloud platform company Benchling announced it closed $34.5 million in Series C funding
Benchling — a leading life sciences R&D cloud platform — announced it closed $34.5 million in Series C funding led by Menlo Ventures. New investors Lead Edge Capital and Y Combinator Continuity along with returning investors Benchmark and Thrive Capital.
This round of funding comes after the company recently tripled revenue and customers, winning over 100 new industry and institutional clients since closing its Series B a year ago. And the company will use the funding to grow globally, extend its product lead, and expand commercial relationships to enable breakthrough biotech innovations faster than ever before.
“Benchling was created for today’s researchers who are working on tomorrow’s science, allowing them to focus on achieving the next breakthrough outcomes,” said Benchling co-founder and CEO Sajith Wickramasekara. “The next generation of scientists is already on Benchling and at the forefront of establishing the future of the life science and biotech industries. We’ll use this investment to support deeper engagements with large commercial customers and bring the power of the cloud to tackle the complexity of biotech.”
Ever since launching in 2012, Benchling has grown to become the most widely adopted life science R&D cloud software used by more than 170,000 scientists worldwide. And its customers include the world’s most renowned academic labs at Harvard, MIT, Stanford, and Berkeley to life science industry leaders like Zoetis, Beam Therapeutics, Zymergen, and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals.
“Life science R&D has become incredibly complex — from the molecules to the processes to the multi-dimensional data. Until Benchling, there had been no end-to-end, purpose-built SaaS application to enhance, streamline, and drive collaboration across R&D teams. Biologics are the future of life sciences and the faster that innovation gets to market, the more society benefits,” added Menlo Ventures partner Matt Murphy. “Benchling’s software replaces pen and paper workflows and becomes the system of record for a wide range of biotech and pharma R&D projects — from medicine and cancer treatment to plant-based meat and sustainable materials. Saji and team’s first-hand experience in life sciences, combined with their passion for building better software to accelerate innovation, has delivered a game-changing platform for leading commercial and academic institutions.”
Scientists working in cutting-edge fields such as CRISPR, CAR-T immunotherapy, and genetic engineering depend on Benchling’s suite of cloud applications to design DNA, collaborate on experiments, manage research workflows, and make critical R&D decisions. And scientists and R&D organizations have embraced the platform.
Benchling has achieved a 90% user adoption rate while legacy platforms typically languish unused. And in the last year, Benchling has also seen 130% revenue growth in existing customers as clients expand and deepen their relationship with the platform.
“Zymergen is unlocking new sources of molecular diversity to help engineer new products from biomaterials to pharmaceuticals,” explained Jed Dean — the co-founder and VP of Operations & Engineering at Zymergen. “As a technology leader ourselves, we were looking for a software platform that is leading the way in facilitating cutting-edge science. Benchling has been an invaluable technology partner as we’ve scaled our business. It has advanced data-sharing, innovation, and collaboration across our teams.”
