Transcriptic, Inc. is a Menlo Park, California-based robotic cloud laboratory launched in 2012 and led by CEO Max Hodak. The company provides a web-based automated cellular and molecular biology platform that enables individual researchers, institutions and large pharmaceutical businesses to control their work and generate data. Its platform is designed to let scientists focus on the creative aspects of their science by automating experimental execution and data generation. Transcriptic closed a $13.4M Series A-1 funding round. The company intends to use the funds to grow its team and extend the capabilities of its platform. Investors in the round include Data Collective, Digital Science, WuXi AppTec and AME Cloud Ventures. Transcriptic operates a cloud-based, robot-operated biological lab that lets users run life-science experiments remotely. The company is scaling its Menlo Park facility after a Y Combinator partnership and has invested in proprietary robotic equipment. It reported a six-figure sale and more than doubled headcount to 26 employees, with over half the team focused on hardware engineering to design and build its robots. In January the company purchased just over $800,000 of new robotic equipment for the lab. Transcriptic says it plans to use funding to purchase additional proprietary equipment and begin moving into drug‑screening tests. The startup positions itself as the only cloud-based robotic bio lab in operation, with a competitor’s robotics arm still in testing. Transcriptic operates a Menlo Park lab that combines a fleet of robots, microscopes, incubators and other equipment with software to run remote wet-lab experiments on behalf of researchers. Customers submit protocols and receive data via a dashboard while Transcriptic executes experiments in automated workcells overseen by PhD scientists and engineers (robot-to-human ratio ~50:50). The company packages services such as cloning, mouse genotyping, growth-curve analysis and biobanking, generally priced pay-as-you-go. Transcriptic counts researchers at Stanford, Caltech, UCSD, Harvard, MIT and the University of Chicago among its users and says usage has been doubling every month since October. Financially, the startup has raised $4.1M to date and holds the new capital to expand services, hire, and buy more equipment. Management plans to broaden research coverage and scale its automation and infrastructure to further virtualize the research funnel. Transcriptic develops next-generation lab automation and virtualization technology to let scientists perform biology research remotely through automation. The company began by offering molecular cloning and custom plasmid services as an initial step toward a broader platform that will let users write custom experiments online. Its platform is accepting customers on a limited basis after several months of testing and is planned for general availability by mid-2013. Transcriptic plans to use the seed funding to build a robotic research lab in Menlo Park and to add capabilities over the next year to demonstrate lower costs than typical life‑science workflows. Founder Max Hodak emphasized that the system aims to replace manual bench work and simplify workflows to a web-based interface. The company also used broad accredited-investor participation via online platforms as part of this funding effort.

Total raised

$26M

Funding rounds

4

Latest round

Series A

Latest activity

Nov 2016