Siemens Venture Capital has invested in Riffyn, a developer of R&D design software. The financing gives Riffyn fresh capital at a time when it is on the cusp of transitioning its software from private beta testing into commercial use.
Riffyn sees its software as a computer-aided design system for scientific experiments. In practice, this means users of the software can construct process flow diagrams, set critical parameters and collect the resulting data. Riffyn is pitching the software to companies in the life science sector and other industries as a way to cut the time it takes to design experiments, while improving reproducibility and enabling collaboration.
Having previously persuaded Bioeconomy Capital and O’Reilly Alphatech Ventures to invest in its idea, Riffyn has now convinced Siemens of its merits.
“Riffyn’s design and optimization software ... provides an extraordinary improvement in the transparency and reliability of R&D efforts, reducing time-to-market and delivering Quality-by-Design,” Siemens VP Hartmut Klocker said in a statement. “This design-to-manufacturing approach makes Riffyn a natural partner for Siemens growth in cloud, IoT and R&D products.”
The Siemens contribution, which brings Riffyn’s total fundraising haul up to $4.6 million, comes at a pivotal moment for the startup and its software. Riffyn advanced the software into private beta testing in the fourth quarter of last year. And, having spent months refining the software in response to feedback from the beta testers, Riffyn is now nearing the point at which it is ready to release its technology more widely.
The plan is to release the software for commercial use in August. Riffyn initially plans to give users access to the software through the three top tiers of its pricing plan. Each of these plans provides unlimited storage space and access to all of the core features of the software, such as experiment design and analytics tools. However, only the top two tiers offer compliance with 21 CFR, while only one of the payment plans enables companies to use a virtual private cloud.
Riffyn plans to add options for individual researchers and those who wish to try the system for free later in the year.
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