The global clinical trial market is expected to grow to ~$70B by 2028 according to Grand View Research. This growth is fueled by the introduction of technologies to manage clinical trials at scale. While clinical trials can lead to groundbreaking healthcare discoveries that provide hope and treatment for many ailing patients, there are many factors like logistical concerns, inadequate data management, and barriers to recruitment that prevent these trials from scaling. ProofPilot is a turn-key software-driven end-to-end platform for clinical trials. Think of it as an operating system for clinical trial research that allows organizations to efficiently design, recruit, and manage all clinical data in a centralized platform. The company focuses on the life sciences market (ProofPilot Rx) but has expanded its offering to address the research needs of the health and wellness industry (ProofPilot365) as well.
AlleyWatch caught up with ProofPilot CEO Matthew Amsden to learn more about the business, the company’s strategic plans, latest round of funding, which brings the total reported funding raised to $15.7M, and much, much more…
Who were your investors and how much did you raise?
ProofPilot announced the closing of more than $12M in Series B financing. Our investors included Mitsui & Co. (U.S.A.), Inc., Sopris Capital, LLC, First Trust Capital Partners, LLC, and Excelra, among others.
Tell us about the product or service that ProofPilot offers.
ProofPilot is a Software as a Service (SaaS) clinical trial research platform. ProofPilot is built for career health science researchers in academia, pharma, and medical device industries. However, it’s designed to be accessible to individuals in other personal and societal wellness sectors who are interested in gaining evidence-based insights through scientifically validated research.
What inspired the start of ProofPilot?
In most well-trained clinical research groups and organizations, the beginning of a clinical trial happens entirely in Word or PowerPoint. These are effective communication tools – but they’re just that. When considering the coordination, planning, and effort needed to successfully design and execute a research trial, a word processing tool does not advance the complex components of doing effective science. The ProofPilot platform has solved these research inefficiencies, and our software makes it possible for companies to radically scale and accelerate clinical research.
The ProofPilot platform eliminates weeks and months of wait time necessary for traditional database builds. Users can simultaneously configure the interface and backend database – which eliminates the wait times for the final design and deployment. Companies using ProofPilot can create numerous study scenarios and common designs through modeling and can utilize templates to help act on changing regulatory, scientific, or commercial decisions.
How is ProofPilot different?
Our platform is different than other players in this space, as it orchestrates:
Design. Digital trial design is the core of ProofPilot’s value, and a key capability that our competitors haven’t been able to stand up to. Trial sponsors can design and simulate by choosing from libraries of measurements, assessments, and functional elements. No software developers. No wait time. They can then simulate exactly how a participant or study site staff is going to experience a trial protocol, and also create options so that they are ready to hit the ground running based on feedback from internal and external stakeholders.
Engagement. Once a sponsor is satisfied they can launch the trial to participants and study site staff. ProofPilot is a hybrid trial platform – it supports activities that can take place via telemedicine, remote/online, and in-person.
Evaluation: Once launched, ProofPilot allows sponsors to track progress on study tasks and review study results. At ProofPilot we ensure every IRB-approved study adheres to rigorous compliance and ethical principles as covered by HIPAA, CFR Part 11, and GDPR.
What market does ProofPilot target and how big is it?
ProofPilot was built for anyone to design, build, launch and participate in a clinical trial – it was created for Life Science, health & wellness, and medical device markets.
What’s your business model?
ProofPilot has introduced two new products with this raise based on the nearly 10 years of experience we have in the space: ProofPilotRx is our foundational product, built for regulated Life Science companies. ProofPilot 365 is an outgrowth of our foundational product modified slightly for the unique needs of Health and Wellness customers.
Direct to consumer wellness brands have seen a clinical trial on the front page of every newspaper, magazine, and podcast for the past two years. They increasingly want to run their own to engage with customers in a new way. ProofPilot 365 is allowing them to do so.
What are your post-COVID office plans??
ProofPilot is 100% remote, but the company is based out of New York City! We are keeping an eye on the current state of the pandemic and will reassess office plans as appropriate.
What was the funding process like?
As a part of the Series B financing, ProofPilot worked diligently with Mitsui & Co. (U.S.A.), Inc., Sopris Capital, LLC, First Trust Capital Partners, LLC, and Excelra, to ensure it would meet the important needs for customers longterm to conduct efficient clinical trials.
What are the biggest challenges that you faced while raising capital?
As a part of the Series B financing, ProofPilot worked diligently with Mitsui & Co. (U.S.A.), Inc., Sopris Capital, LLC, First Trust Capital Partners, LLC, and Excelra, to ensure it would meet the important needs for customers longterm to conduct efficient clinical trials.
We got some pressure to raise more. However, as a strictly SaaS-based organization, not a service firm with tech capabilites, we knew we could be more efficient with our resources.
What factors about your business led your investors to write the check?
Clinical trials can be expensive, time-consuming, and typically take large teams of people to pull off successfully. The strength of ProofPilot goes beyond bringing cost and time efficiencies to a couple of well-resourced trials. We believe that by leveraging software-driven expertise we can make research trials and the evidence gained available to organizations who lack the resources, the experience, or the time.
ProofPilot is a true SaaS, from designing the study, executing the study, and reviewing results. It means we can support trials that have limited budgets, or non-traditional participant populations.
It’s where we feel our real value is: by making research methodologies broadly available and by generating evidence at a reasonable cost, we can help companies, communities, and individuals make better-informed decisions that affect our health and wellbeing.
What are the milestones you plan to achieve in the next six months?
We anticipate several new product-specific and industry partnerships that we’ll announce soon, which underscores that with our platform, more companies can design and execute trials with rigor.
What advice can you offer companies in New York that do not have a fresh
injection of capital in the bank?
If you see something that needs change, take calculated risks for the greater good. Humanity will thank you for it.
Where do you see the company going now over the near term?
ProofPilot is bringing a wider array of next-generation health interventions to everyone. Through our cost-effective and digitally-enabled platform, pharmaceutical and medical device companies, we know they can scale their research capabilities and still make more room to explore the potential of digital health solutions.
For the first time, health & wellness companies can now run clinical trials to substantiate their products and services at a manageable cost. Moreover, participants can seamlessly engage in a wide variety of research efforts outside of those focused solely on disease.
What’s your favorite outdoor dining restaurant in NYC?
Definitely anywhere on Arthur Ave in the Bronx!
