Cloud R&D software startup Benchling raises $50M, now valued over $850 Million

Sajith started working on a project, called Crispr, back when he was at MIT. The idea behind the project was to design a tool for scientists that could help researchers track, measure, and forecast their scientific work. Eight years later, Benchling, based on the same idea, has raised another $50 Million in Series D funding led by Alkeon Capital, Lux Capital, and Spark Capital.

Used by leading research organizations around the world, Benchling is a cloud R&D platform for collaborating on life science research. The investing round comes at a very crucial time when the whole of the world is focusing on biotech as companies race to deliver diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines for COVID-19.

Life science R&D is pretty broken right now — from the molecules to the processes to the multi-dimensional data. It’s a mess. Until Benchling, there was no end-to-end service available to enhance, streamline, and drive collaboration across R&D teams. The platform has seen usage surge over 50% during the pandemic.

Benchling offers several solutions, such as Benchling for Lab Automation to help companies maximize lab automation investments, and Benchling Insights, which gives life scientists the ability to query, visualize and collaborate around complex biological data.

Benchling plans to use the investment to expand product capabilities and add to its international presence, the company said.

Check it out here.