Formation Bio, a tech-driven and AI-native pharma company, announced today that it has raised $372MM of Series D financing. The financing was led by a16z with significant participation from Sanofi. Current investors also joined the round, including Sequoia, Thrive, Emerson Collective, and Lachy Groom, along with new investors, such as SV Angel Growth and FPV Ventures. This round reflects a material step up from the company’s Series C valuation. As part of the financing, Scott Kupor, Managing Partner at a16z and Alfred Lin, Partner at Sequoia will join Formation Bio’s Board of Directors alongside existing board director Michael Moritz, Sr. Advisor to Sequoia Heritage and board observer Kareem Zaki, Partner at Thrive Capital.
“We are thrilled to partner with the Formation Bio team on their journey to build an AI-enabled pharma company,” said Scott Kupor, Managing Partner at a16z. “Pharma represents one of the biggest industries in the world, and there is immense potential to make the drug development process more efficient. We’ve been impressed by the team and culture that the co-founders, Ben and Linhao, have built, one that brings together the best of pharma, tech, and AI to ultimately make an enduring impact for patients.”
Formation Bio is differentiated by its tech and AI enabled approach that drives more efficient drug development. Advancements in AI and drug discovery are creating more candidate drugs than the industry can progress because of the high cost and time of clinical trials. Recognizing that this development bottleneck limits the number of new medicines that can reach patients, Formation Bio (launched in 2016 as TrialSpark) has built technology platforms, processes, and capabilities to accelerate all aspects of drug development and clinical trials. The company partners, acquires, or in-licenses drugs from biotechs and pharma companies and develops those programs past clinical proof of concept and beyond.
