Life science businesses, such as large pharmaceutical companies, have unique needs when it comes to developing applications. Their models and algorithms tend to be more sophisticated and data intensive than most industries. Quantori, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based startup, is building a platform-as-a-service tailored specifically for this vertical’s needs.
The startup is trying to prove that it’s uniquely positioned to work with this market, and today announced a $15 million seed investment in a $100 million post-funding.
It certainly makes some bold claims, “Quantory’s data engineering and data science platform for drug discovery and development aims to build a new data integration and high-performance computing environment for global and early-stage biopharma companies. “The platform allows us to halve the cost and time for patients, and allows us to complete complex accounting tasks 5-10 times faster,” the company said.
According to Quantori co-founder and chief scientific officer Yuri Gankin, the founders back their claims with decades of experience in this market, including helping to start and build GGA Software Services, a company focused on the life sciences market. Purchased by EPAM in 2014.
Gankin launched the company in 2020 and already has 700 employees, many of whom have expertise in the life sciences domain. By initially focusing on professional services, they were able to generate revenue by helping clients build applications, and were able to bring in a large number of employees before receiving a single penny of outside capital, he said.
We have positioned ourselves at the forefront of rapid growth. So initially we focused on revenue. And we believe our professional services will educate us more about companies’ needs. [in this market] They are in the development of technology and the income from these activities will help support the development of technology.
And it’s through this consulting work that the company continues to build this foundational service platform, allowing customers to build their own apps or hire Quantori’s professional services team to help them.
“The goal is to create a platform-based service company, so it’s not a product company, but we will build and integrate platform accelerators and deploy them to our customers. So there will always be a license component and a service component.
So far, they support more than 30 clients, including Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Takeda and Biogen, and expect to generate about $30 million in revenue this year, Gankin said.
They are still building parts of the platform, but it will eventually include a discovery engine, a high-performance computing component, data engineering and ultimately data analytics. Gankin says customers can mix and match these pieces as they like.
With more than 700 employees, it’s already a large organization, and Gankin says diversity is extremely important to him and his founding team. “That’s one pain point I’m trying to overcome and we’re going to put a lot of effort into it. We are doing well on gender diversity, especially in our supply chain. We have many talented men and women and the LGBQ community is also well represented. And to some extent we have racial differences here as well.
He says his business development company is struggling to find women, but it’s something he’s actively working on.
Today’s investment comes from Boston-based Flint Capital. The company was early bootstrapped before relying on consulting services for revenue.
