The Covid pandemic shifted many of the ways people live and work. During a time when simply standing too close to someone was risky, organizations of all kinds had to pivot to remote-friendly modes of operation. Now that online-first capabilities are the norm, the companies helping power this digital transition are seeing rapid growth. Florence Healthcare is one of them, and the company just secured fresh capital to enhance its solution.
Florence developed a software platform that streamlines workflows at hospitals and clinics that run clinical trials. The company raised $27 million in Series C-1 funding on Wednesday led by Insight Partners, the same lead investor for its Series C. The round brings Florence’s total venture capital to $114.1 million.
The company’s platform works to digitize document operations for healthcare facilities running trials through its eBinders product. It also enables real-time remote collaboration between the biopharma companies conducting clinical trials and the clinics seeing patients through its SiteLink solution. The company’s tech is currently active at more than 10,000 study sites in 45 countries.
Florence aims to be the infrastructure that helps solve challenges in the clinical trial space regarding study speed, capacity, patient access and sites that are new to research, according to Blake Adams, Florence’s SVP of marketing. By digitizing research operations, the company aims to help diversify the clinical trial site landscape and allow trials to run at sites closer to underrepresented patients who may not be able to travel to major academic medical centers.
“A big push by the FDA right now is on diversity and inclusion, making the patient population enrolled in a clinical trial actually reflect the population the medical advancement is intended to help,” Adams told Built In via email. “This initiative requires biopharma companies to select and work with clinical sites in communities that reflect those populations, but often these sites are new to research. ... Biopharma’s are using Florence’s SiteLink solution to remotely collaborate with these study sites, help them get started and [provide] them real-time guidance and support to keep studies on track, maintain patient safety and ensure compliance.”
With its new funding, Florence is furthering its work. The company is expanding its product offerings so it can service all of the workflows between trial sites and sponsors. As it currently focuses on study conduct, monitoring and close-out workflows, the funding will enable it to encompass site selection and site feasibility as well, according to Adams.
The rest of its new capital will help Florence scale its internal team across all departments. All of its roles are remote-first and the company is actively hiring for more than 25 roles.
“Getting medical advancements to those who need them requires a perfect mix of research and development. Although a lot of progress has been made in the research arm of that equation — just look at the incredible advancements in immunotherapy, 3D-printed organs and other advancements — the development arm of that equation has lagged behind,” Adams said. “Clinical trials take longer to conduct today than they did 10 years ago. … In this decade, we aim to double the output of clinical research teams by streamlining and automating as many workflows as possible so more of these incredible medical advancements reach those in need.”
