Power, which is focused on improving access to clinical trial studies, has debuted with $7 million in seed funding to break through barriers that currently hamper patient recruiting efforts.
The San Francisco-based company, which had been in stealth mode for the past nine months, officially launched in August. The seed funding round was led by Footwork and CRV with additional investments from Artis Ventures, South Park Commons and AirAngels.
Power’s platform allows patients and providers to search every trial currently available in the U.S. It includes over 30,000 clinical trials and 100,000 researchers spanning 10,000 medical conditions and is on track to have more than 500,000 patients use the platform this year, the company said.
Accessibility barriers in the clinical trial system can prevent qualified patients from participating. A particular problem with recruiting is that enrollment disproportionately impacts women, people of color and other populations that historically have been excluded from medical research.
"Historically, clinical trials have relied on recruiting patients who are being treated at large, prestigious medical institutions and/or have active, hands-on support from a physician or patient advocate,” Brandon Li, Power's co-founder, said in a statement. "One of our top priorities when we started Power was to create easy access to clinical trials for all patients who need to explore innovative treatments."