Atlanta-based Florence, maker of software that supports clinical research with remote connectivity and electronic document management, scored $80 million in Series C funding. Insight Partners led the round with participation from Fulcrum Equity Partners, Bee Partners and Flashpoint.

This brings the company's total funding pot to roughly $88 million. It closed its $7.1 million Series B round in 2019.

WHAT IT DOES

The company is focused on decentralized clinical trials. Its main function is helping to connect pharma companies with study sites. Stakeholders are able to tap into the platform to remotely connect to research and collaborate with colleagues on documents, data and workflow.

The tool was designed to help with workflow issues including SOPs, contracts, credentials and employee onboarding. It was also designed to help with regulatory compliance.

WHAT IT'S FOR

The company plans to use the new funds to grow out its business and work with more clients.

"Remote connectivity and virtual collaboration became a requirement after COVID-19. With one in three study sites around the world using our software, we were able to help," Ryan Jones, cofounder and CEO of Florence, said in a statement.

"Not only do pharmaceutical companies, clinical research organizations, and sites use Florence to manage their COVID studies, they also leveraged our software to ensure that hundreds of other clinical trials across every disease area were able to progress as the industry pivoted to remote work. This investment will allow us to continue connecting research stakeholders, advancing cures, and giving investigators more time for who matters most: patients."

MARKET SNAPSHOT

Decentralized clinical trials are quickly popularizing in the digital health space. Another startup in the space is Science37, which raked in $40 million in investments last summer. In February, Current Health, a remote patient-monitoring platform, launched a new program to build diverse longitudinal datasets for decentralized clinical trials.

Life science company LabCorp launched a new platform focused on streamlining the clinical trial and drug development process in October.