Overwatch Research raises $3.5m to increase reproducibility in clinical trials

The funding round will fuel a US expansion to meet demand for improved laboratory research processes and create 18 new jobs

Belfast-based Overwatch Research, the automation platform for drug development, has announced that it has raised a $3.5m seed funding round led by Frontline Ventures.

Overwatch will use the additional capital to build a sales and marketing presence in the US to capitalize on market demand (60% of the existing customer base is already there) and accelerate growth across the Atlantic.

It will also expand the product and support teams to continue to build capacity within the company and 18 new jobs will be created as Overwatch moves to the next phase of company growth.

Prominent investors including SV Angel, Zach Weinberg (Operator Partners/co-founder of Flatiron Health), Michael Polansky (CEO of The Parker Group and co-founder of Parker Institute for Cancer Immunology), Techstart Ventures, Foreword.vc and Robert Fenton (CEO of Qualio) also participated in the round.

Overwatch was founded by Dr. Chris Armstrong, Paul Wilsdon and Graham Wilsdon in 2017 after they became frustrated with the archaic methods of study and data management used during preclinical drug development, which were contributing to a reproducibility crisis in the pharmaceutical industry estimated to cost $28B/year.

The Overwatch team spoke with over 250 pharmaceutical and biotech companies to identify issues within the drug development process, then designed an end-to-end study management platform to combat issues including transcription error, hindered collaboration, loss of data and other inefficiencies which were contributing to the reproducibility crisis.

The platform encompasses preclinical research workflows for study design, data collection (with hardware integrations), data analysis and reporting, with the added benefit that researchers are able to operate more efficiently.

Dr. Chis Armstrong, co-founder and chief executive officer of Overwatch, explained: “Preclinical drug development is at the cutting edge of science yet desperately in need of technology labs are still reliant on paper-based notebooks and spreadsheets which is a major cause of error contributing to the reproducibility crisis.

“We envision a future where the pharmaceutical industry can more easily identify drugs which will succeed at clinical trials through the tools and operational rigor that Overwatch provides.

“With better data collection and analysis capabilities, scientists can save time, reduce error and increase collaboration — leading to faster drug development and less wasted effort and spend.”

Overwatch is already beloved by a global customer base. Quinn Waker, Senior Researcher, Lyell Immunopharma (San Francisco) continued: “We partnered with Overwatch to manage all aspects of our preclinical study workflow due to the comprehensive and intuitive nature of the product.

“Our main objective was to move away from traditional spreadsheet approaches used for data management to a system that could provide us with more confidence in the studies being performed. Overwatch ticks all the boxes when it comes to error reduction, data collection efficiency improvements and collaboration.”

Investor Finn Murphy of Frontline Ventures, added: “It’s rare when you first meet an entrepreneur you just know you have to invest.

“This was exactly the feeling the Frontline team had after meeting Overwatch. We need better therapies and drugs coming to market and solving the issue of reproducibility at the preclinical phase is a key part of making that happen.

“Overwatch is one of the most mission driven companies we’ve had the opportunity to partner with and we’re proud they are bringing us along for the journey.”

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