Press Release: "TrialReach Raises $13.5M Series B Led by Smedvig Capital"
London, U.K. – Feb 5th, 2015 – TrialReach, the world’s largest provider of clinical trial information, today announced it has raised a $13.5M Series B financing round led by Smedvig Capital with participation from existing investors Amadeus Capital Partners and Octopus Investments. With one of the biggest digital health rounds ever raised in the United Kingdom, TrialReach plans to use the funds to support the growth of its clinical trial platform and expansion into the U.S..
Founded in 2010, TrialReach is helping to solve one of the biggest challenges in medical research: connecting patients with clinical trials. One in five cancer trials in the U.S. fails to find a single participant, and only three percent of adult patients participate in cancer research, simply because most patients don’t know that clinical trials are an option for them. For pharmaceutical companies, trial delays can equate to over $8M of lost daily revenue per drug, while for patients, delays reduce the number of potentially life-saving drugs that are available to them.
“We have had significant success in the U.S. market to date, and we are confident that now it’s the right time to scale up our team and operations domestically, in order to solidify our leadership position,” said Pablo Graiver, CEO, TrialReach. “Smedvig has significant experience working with early stage tech-enabled businesses. Their hands-on support will accelerate our plans to become the industry standard for pharmaceutical companies seeking patients for clinical trials. We eagerly anticipate the opening of our New York office to jumpstart our business and sales efforts across the U.S.”
Unlike other clinical search sites, the TrialReach platform is designed to aggregate and structure all clinical trial listings worldwide, so that patients can be smart matched with the specific trials for which they may be eligible. In addition, the platform gives trial sponsors the opportunity to describe trials and patient criteria in a non-clinical manner that’s much easier for patients to understand.
“TrialReach’s bold online marketplace approach offers a solution to one of the biggest problems in the pharmaceutical industry – matching patients with clinical trials”, said Jordan Mayo, a Managing Director at Smedvig Capital.“TrialReach’s platform can reach and help millions of patients with chronic and life-threatening diseases, and address a huge and underserved market opportunity. We believe they are well placed to expand rapidly to the significant benefit of pharmaceutical companies, clinical trial practitioners and patients.” TrialReach is already working with many of the world's leading health organizations, and more than half of the top 25 pharmaceutical companies are using TrialReach's platform to support their clinical trial efforts. In addition, TrialReach reaches millions of patients online through partnerships with major health portals including Healthline, Everyday Health and CenterWatch as well as some patient networks such as WEGO Health and CureClick.
About TrialReach
The TrialReach platform is helping to solve one of the biggest challenges in medical research: connecting patients with clinical trials. Our mission is to empower millions of people to participate in clinical trials across the world to develop new medical treatments and find cures faster. TrialReach was launched in 2010 and is based in the U.S. and London, U.K. For more information, visit http://www.trialreach.com.
About Smedvig Capital
Smedvig Capital was founded in 1996 and has invested over £600m of internal capital. They invest £2-15m in fast-growing innovative businesses, backing ambitious teams with the potential to become market leaders. Smedvig Capital’s model is to invest in a small number of businesses each year, and then commit time to working closely with management, providing advice and hands-on support. Smedvig invests across a range of sectors; previous and current investments include a number of tech-enabled businesses such as Zipcar/Streetcar, myhomemove, Quill Content and Tusker. For more information, visit http://www.smedvigcapital.com.
About Amadeus Capital Partners
Amadeus, http://www.amadeuscapital.com, has an 18 year history of successful technology investing. Since its inception, the firm has backed over 90 companies from 10 funds totalling over $1bn in cumulative commitments. Amadeus has a presence in the UK, Sweden, US, India and South Africa and the team has deep experience of technology. Major businesses built by Amadeus include Optos (LSE:OPTS), Solexa, acquired by Illumina Inc. (ILMN), and CSR (LSE:CSR).
About Octopus Investments
Octopus is a venture capital investor who backs talented people with the potential to build big businesses. Our focus is on identifying entrepreneurs and fast growth companies that can scale explosively to create, transform or dominate an industry. The Ventures team has a proven track record of helping build exceptional global businesses, including Zoopla Property Group, Secret Escapes, SwiftKey, graze.com and YPlan. The Ventures team is part of Octopus Investments, one of the UK’s leading investment management companies specialising in smaller company investing, with more than £4.7 billion of assets under management. http://www.octopusinvestments.com/
Media Contacts
Sarah Kerruish
TrialReach
sarah@trialreach.com
+44 (754) 636-4484
Jordan Mayo
Smedvig Capital
jm@smedvigcapital.com
+44 (207) 451-2100