Koneksa, a US-based developer of digital biomarkers for drug development, has raised $16m in its series B round from a consortium including multiple healthcare companies’ corporate venturing units.
McKesson Ventures, Novartis Venture Fund and Merck Global Health Innovation Fund, representing their pharma parents, invested in the B round, which was led by investment firms Spring Mountain Capital, and which also featured MBX Capital and Waterline Ventures.
Founded in 2015, Koneksa started with incubation support from Merck Global Health Innovation Fund and raised $9.6m in a March 2020 series A round.
The company will use the funding to expand the development of a digital platform for integrating wearables, sensors and other patient-facing technologies into clinical research.
Rana Lonnen, managing director of digital investments at Novartis, said: “An effective platform is one that leverages strong scientific capabilities to gather data from devices and biometric data sources to develop clinically meaningful endpoints.”
Carrie Hurwitz Williams, partner at McKesson Ventures, added: “Effective digital biomarkers will be an essential part of conducting trials in the future.”
