NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – San Francisco-based Benchling said today that it has raised $5 million in a financing round led by Andreessen Horowitz with participation from Thrive Capital.
The funds will be used to accelerate the company's commercial operations and to expand its software engineering and global customer support teams, the company said.
Benchling also announced the launch of the Benchling Research Platform, a cloud-based system for life science research and development that provides tools for tracking experiment details and storing data in a fully versioned, indexed, and searchable manner; facilitating collaboration; and streamlining data analysis. It offers applications for tasks such as designing DNA, creating interactive protocols, and annotating gel images, the company said. The platform is already being used by scientists in companies such as Zymergen and Radiant Genomics and at centers such as the Broad Institute.
"We aim to deliver a streamlined lab infrastructure that helps scientists keep up with increasingly complex assays, protocols, and data analysis," Sajith Wickramasekara, Benchling's CEO, said in a statement. "The Benchling Research Platform is a key step toward our vision of building the complete system of record for life science research."
In addition to Andreessen Horowitz and Thrive Capital, Benchling's investors include Y Combinator, Rock Health, FF Angel, SV Angel, Tim Draper, Geoff Ralston, Kevin Mahaffey, and Matt Huang.