Clinverse and Comprehend raise $30M in separate financing rounds

Clinverse and Comprehend have raised a total of $30.1 million in separate Series C and B financing rounds, giving both companies the cash to push ahead with their expansion plans. Comprehend snagged the lion's share of the cash, with Lightspeed Venture Partners and Sequoia Capital teaming up to back the company with a $21 million Series B round.

Lightspeed's Peter Nieh

The $21 million will support Comprehend's ambitious growth plans, which include an 80% increase in headcount. Redwood City, CA-based Comprehend is prioritizing the expansion of its product development and customer service teams as it adjusts to 100% year-on-year growth in its client base. The new customers--which include the biotechs Karyopharm Therapeutics and Versartis--were attracted by Comprehend's ability to combine and visualize data from systems from Medidata ($MDSO), Oracle ($ORCL) and other vendors.

Lightspeed Venture Partners was also attracted by the platform and has joined with existing Comprehend investor Sequoia Capital to fund its expansion. The arrangement sees Lightspeed partner Peter Nieh take a seat on Comprehend's board of directors. "Comprehend's analytical solutions enable life science companies to execute the clinical research process in a fundamentally new way, and the market is responding with great enthusiasm," Nieh said in a statement.

Across the country in Durham, NC, Clinverse has closed its own financing, in which Edison Partners joined with existing investors including Hatteras Venture Partners for a $9.1 million Series C round. Clinverse has also allocated some of its money to product development, with the rest going toward building out its support infrastructure. The company has snagged some top biopharma companies and CROs as clients by providing automated payment software for clinical trials.

- read Comprehend's release
- here's Clinverse's news
- get FierceCRO's take