- nference – a company that synthesizes the world’s biomedical knowledge – announced the completion of a $60 million Series C funding round. These are the details.
nference – a company that synthesizes the world’s biomedical knowledge – announced the completion of a $60 million Series C funding round led by Matrix Capital Management along with Matrix Partners, Mayo Clinic Ventures, and NTTVC. nferX, which is the company’s powerful and comprehensive software platform, makes possible the conversion of a vast array of biomedical knowledge into computable data and results in answers to complex questions about disease biology and treatment outcomes. And the platform supports a diverse set of applications across multiple disciplines in the life sciences ecosystem, bringing relevant, actionable knowledge to scientists, researchers and clinicians that in turn inspire innovations in diagnostic tools and treatments.
Plus nference scientists and technologists provide the human intelligence to synthesize the plethora of scientific literature, clinical and regulatory filings, genomics data, and molecular data from the public domain. Through the company’s unique, exclusive collaboration with Mayo Clinic, nference de-identifies and synthesizes electronic health records, laboratory reports, pathology images, physician notes, and a host of other data representing the collective experience of millions of patients and expertise of hundreds of thousands of physicians and scientists.
This “unstructured” data are rich in biological context and therapeutic outcomes, yet even given years, teams of experts would not be able to interpret such vast quantities of information, much less derive meaningful insights and translate them into better diagnosis, care, and therapeutics. And nference can unlock this hidden value to help overcome real-world, life sciences challenges in real-time.
The Series C funding round supports the work of nference teams in ongoing software development and learning models. And recent nference projects include understanding critical characteristics of the SARS-CoV-2 virus transmission, the symptoms and progression of Covid-19, and diagnostic predictions of chronic and life-threatening conditions such as pulmonary hypertension.
nference is led by a team of accomplished entrepreneurs, scientists, and technologists. The company’s co-founders Murali Aravamudan (chief executive officer) and Venky Soundararajan, PhD (chief scientific officer) recently welcomed Anita Kawatra as chief corporate affairs officer and George Shiebler as senior vice president and general counsel. Both of them have deep experience with start-ups, biotech, and pharmaceutical companies. And they join Agustin Lopez Marquez (chief product officer), Ajit Rajasekharan (chief technology officer), and Hutch Fishman (chief financial officer), all of whom are distinguished experts in their fields.
The executive team also oversees an elite workforce of over 200 physicians, biologists, data scientists, and engineers. And the US team collaborates closely with Vishy Thiagarajan, vice president of engineering, and Rakesh Barve, PhD, vice president of data sciences, who co-lead nference Labs in Bangalore, India. nference Labs is emerging as one of the leading centers for artificial intelligence research and modern software development and has recently expanded into Toronto, Canada.
KEY QUOTES:
“nference – a science-first software company – continues to push the boundaries of augmented intelligence to accelerate the work of our expert scientists and technologists in making biomedical knowledge computable via our nferXTM software platform. This funding enables expansion of our portfolio, which is catalyzing development of meaningful diagnostics and therapeutics. We have built a transformative company, led by a world-class team, addressing complex problems in the life sciences that promise to ultimately improve patient outcomes and the lives of people on a global scale.”
“Thousands of identified medical disorders and diseases have no approved treatments. The disruptive technologies created by nference make sense of billions of pieces of siloed, disconnected biomedical data. Collaborations with biopharmaceutical companies, academic medical centers and health systems keep the focus on patients by advancing the development and delivery of therapies and diagnostics.”
– Murali Aravamudan, co-founder and chief executive officer
“Advanced technologies and biomedical data analytics from nference are accelerating our efforts to improve health for people through prevention, diagnosis, better treatments and potential cures. Patients are at the center of everything we do, and they are the true beneficiaries of the Mayo Clinic and nference collaboration.”
– John Halamka, MD, president, Mayo Clinic Platform
