Benchling Raises $200M Series E To Accelerate Biotech R&D

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Led by Sequoia, new funding will fuel life sciences cloud leader's global growth and product expansion

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Apr 14, 2021, 08:30 ET

SAN FRANCISCO, April 14, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Benchling, the leading life sciences R&D cloud, has raised $200 million in Series E funding led by Sequoia Capital Global Equities and joined by Altimeter Capital, Byers Capital and Elad Gil. Existing investors participated, including Thrive Capital, Benchmark, Menlo Ventures, Alkeon Capital, ICONIQ, Lux Capital, Spark Capital and Lead Edge Capital. The company will use the funding to aggressively invest in product development and global expansion to support enterprise customers.

"Recent breakthroughs in biology have the potential to transform the world in the same way that computing and the internet did. We are relying on scientists to rewrite the medicines we take, the food we eat, and the fuels that power our lives," said Patrick Fu, managing partner at Sequoia Capital Global Equities. "We are excited to partner with Benchling as they build the foundational software infrastructure for the scientists redefining the world."

Since launching in 2012, more than 300,000 scientists and 1,000 R&D organizations around the globe have adopted Benchling's cloud platform to manage massively complex experimental datasets and optimize R&D processes. Benchling customers — including Gilead Sciences, Sanofi, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Corteva Agrisciences, Sana Biotechnology and more — rely on the company's suite of cloud applications to design DNA, collaborate on experiments, automate data capture, manage research workflows and enable rapid decision-making, all with the aim of bringing products to market faster.

"Sana focuses on engineering genes and cells with a goal of creating novel medicines that not only treat disease, but hopefully cure it," said Steve Harr, Sana co-founder and CEO. "This is complex, interdisciplinary work where each scientist needs to capture, store and analyze immense amounts of data. Benchling has critical technology that enables Sana's global R&D teams to focus on developing our platforms and pipeline, building the right automation, designing the right experiments and finding the insights that reside within our data."

In January, Benchling announced it had doubled its annual recurring revenue (ARR) for the fourth year in a row while adding more than 150 customers in industries spanning medicine, food, agriculture, materials, consumer packaged goods and energy. Multiple enterprises on Benchling delivered life-saving COVID-19 antibody treatments in record time. With a focus on bringing Benchling to the world's largest biotech hubs to support key customers, the company also opened its EMEA headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland.

"This past year has proven the impact biotechnology can have on the world. It's been thrilling to see our customers at the center of developing everything from life-saving therapeutics for COVID-19 to more sustainable products for our planet," said Sajith Wickramasekara, CEO and Co-Founder of Benchling. "This funding will enable us to provide more products, solutions and services that scientists around the world ultimately need to solve some of humanity's greatest challenges."

About Benchling
Benchling is the first R&D cloud platform powering the life science industry and helping the next generation of scientists make breakthrough discoveries and bring them to market faster than ever before. Multinational pharmaceutical corporations, high-growth biotechnology companies and major research institutions alike trust Benchling to speed collaboration and convert the complexity of life sciences into world-changing results. For more, please visit benchling.com.

SOURCE Benchling