NEW YORK – Pluto Biosciences said Tuesday that it has closed a seed funding round worth $3.7 million, led by new investor Silverton Partners, bringing its total raised to date to $4.7 million.
The Wyss Institute spinout had raised slightly more than $1 million in a pre-seed round in 2021.
Denver-based Pluto makes eponymous "digital lab space" software that Founder and CEO Rani Powers has called a collaboration platform for researchers. Powers said in 2021 that she sometimes thinks of the technology as an operating system for a laboratory or life sciences organization to run its workflows.
The Pluto platform can be used to analyze data from next-generation sequencing-based assays such as RNA-seq, ChIP-seq, CUT&RUN, and CRISPR screens, as well as data from metabolomics, proteomics, biochemical assays, and animal behavioral studies. It integrates with sequencing services, electronic lab notebooks, project management platforms, and other tools for collaboration.
The firm said that it would use the new funding to accelerate its sales efforts and to develop additional product features.
"Pluto is breaking down the obstacles that have traditionally prevented the widespread use of computational biology, including the need for compute infrastructure and black box 'pipelines,' and empowering scientists to play an active role in their scientific discoveries," Powers said in a statement.