Seattle-based lab and support service provider LabConnect has received a healthy $24.5 million in its first equity investment as it looks to push on with its clinical trial service offerings.
The 15-year-old company, which works with small and midtier biopharma, medical device firms and CROs, got the $24.5 million series A cash boost from ABS Capital Partners, Pablo Capital and BroadOak Capital.
“The funding will be used to fuel growth initiatives, including additional build-out of the technology platform, product and service enhancements, and sales team expansion, as well as to provide liquidity to early shareholders,” the company said in a statement.
As is common in these early rounds, John Stobo, a managing general partner with ABS Capital, will join the LabConnect board, along with Mark Anderson of Pablo Capital and Tim Johnson of BroadOak Capital.
“LabConnect is poised to continue its strong growth within the small and mid-tier biopharmaceutical market, accommodating the ever-increasing geographic and analytical complexity of clinical studies for our customers,” said Eric Hayashi, president and CEO of LabConnect.
“We were happy to provide a positive exit for our early backers and look forward to working with ABS Capital, Pablo, and BroadOak as we continue to bridge the gap between biotechnology companies and our network of laboratory partners.”
Founded back in 2002, LabConnect offers central lab and scientific support services across the industry; it doesn’t own work on labs directly, but rather manages central lab testing through a network of primary and specialty labs, while focusing on logistics, project management, data management, reporting and customer services.