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Paradigm debuts with $203M series A funding focused on trial platform, patient diversity

Paradigm, the latest startup focused on providing more patient diversity in clinical trials, launched with $203 million in series A funding.

The company was developed by Arch Venture Partners and co-incubated by it and General Catalyst. Other investors included F-Prime Capital, GV, Lux Capital, Mubadala Capital, Magnetic Ventures and the American Cancer Society’s BrightEdge fund.

Paradigm expects to use the funding to expand its platform and scale its partnerships with health systems and life sciences companies. The design of the platform will aim to reduce operational burdens on physicians and healthcare provider organizations while improving access for patients, the company said in a Jan. 25 press release.

“Today the system is broken in almost every respect—patient access is too narrow, incentives are mis-aligned, and poor trial design slows development,” Robert Nelson, co-chair of Paradigm’s board and co-founder and managing director of Arch Venture, said in the release. “We saw an opportunity to fundamentally rebuild the system and fix the business model.”

Kent Thoelke was named Paradigm’s chief executive. Previously, Thoelke was chief innovation officer at Icon and the chief scientific officer at PRA Health Sciences.

Additionally, Paradigm announced the acquisition for an undisclosed price of Deep Lens, a clinical trial patient recruitment provider in oncology.