Discngine raises €1.1 million ($1.3M) in Series A funding round
The company will push forward with its unique SaaS software offering for facilitating the discovery of innovative molecules
Paris, France, December 11, 2017 – Discngine, a software company specializing in applications for life sciences research, today announces a Series A financing round of €1.1 million ($1.3M), received from Extens Développement e-Santé. The funds raised will allow Discngine to move forward with its Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution offering for the life sciences industry, a model that is not, as yet, widely used in this sector.
Discngine already offers software for data management, visualization and decision-making processes in the life sciences industry, with leading pharmaceutical and cosmetics firms among its clients.
Besides speeding up the development and commercialization of its SaaS solution offering, the company will use the new funds to extend its international reach, as well as to hire ten new staff members by the end of 2018. The company will also establish a supervisory board, comprising of representatives from Extens and Discngine as well as two experts from the life sciences research sector: Gordon Waldron, from Sequoia Business Solutions and Simon Valentine, from Illumina.
The Software-as-a-Service approach offers services to clients based on a subscription model. It is well established in several industries, with strong growth potential. In the life sciences sector however the model is not yet widespread. Discngine could be among the first companies to make it more accessible to clients, building on the company’s long-standing technical and scientific knowledge of 14 years.
"Thanks to this investment, our team will be able to industrialize our high value-added projects and commercialize them via a SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) offer available to researchers all over the world," said Eric Le Roux, founder and CEO of Discngine. "Discngine now has the means to accelerate its international development."
"We are excited to invest in Discngine. The company has developed a state-of-the-art technology platform that increases the efficiency of drug discovery, helping to find ‘bankable’ molecules,” said Arnaud Houette, managing director of Extens. “The challenge is not only financial, but above all medical. This is a good example of our strategy: identifying French e-health startups that develop promising technologies, helping them accelerate their development - contributing to an improvement in our health system."
Discngine is already collaborating with Dassault Systèmes BIOVIA on the distribution of its first two SaaS solutions. It is also planning to launch new solutions dedicated to life sciences research in 2018.
Investors: Extens (Cédric Berger, Arnaud Houette)
Financial Audit: ACA Nexia (Hervé Krissi, Olivier Duval)
IT Audit: Make it Work (Frédéric Thomas)
IP Audit: Astura (Matthieu Mélin, Robin Le Marois)
Legal advisor (Extens): Chammas & Marcheteau (Nicolas Lecocq, Romain Penloup)
Legal advisor (Discngine): Lamartine Conseil (Fabien Mauvais, Ahlam Benhamed)
Financing advisor (Discngine): Altman Partners (Jean-Marie Le Tallec, Jean de Limé, Thierry Gauthron)
About Extens
Founded in 2014, Extens Développement e-Santé is a sectoral investment vehicle dedicated to the digital transformation of healthcare. Positioned as a growth fund, Extens invests from €1M to €7M ($1.2-$8.4M) in profitable or nearly profitable companies generating €1M to €20M ($1.2-$23.9M) in revenue with strong growth potential. Its investment targets include: software for hospitals, applications software for healthcare professionals, monitoring solutions for patients at home and health data applications.
www.extens.fr/en
About Discngine
Discngine is a Paris-based software company specializing in applications for the research departments of life sciences companies; specifically for work related to active molecule discovery. It was established in 2004 by two of Pfizer's research alumni in order to develop software that increases the effectiveness of life science research. It currently has 38 employees.
Clients include world leaders in the pharmaceutical, cosmetics and agrochemical industries.
The company's offering has historically been developed around custom software, followed by licenses for software components and most recently by licenses for business solutions. The company will now focus on offering catalog products through SaaS and cloud-based subscription models.
Download PDF (English Version)