90% of drugs in clinical trials end up failing; it takes around $1B and 10-15 years for the successful development of one drug. In spite of this, the global clinical trial market is expected to grow to ~$70B by 2028 according to Grand View Research. 10% of failed candidates are due to a lack of commercial interest and poor strategic planning. For biotech companies, managing time and resources especially finances is critical so teams can have real-time visibility and deep insights into metrics. Auxilius is a financial management and analysis platform for biotech companies with clinical trials. Given the extensive audit, compliance, and reporting requirements for clinical trials, developing a thorough understanding with prudent budgeting enhances the overall financial efficiency and effectiveness of trials. Auxilius takes this process that’s been managed through disparate spreadsheets and centralizes the workflow in the platform, which is versatile enough and well suited to serve the needs of all stages of biotech companies. During the R&D process, it’s been increasingly common for portions of clinical operations to be outsourced, creating complexity in terms of fiscal management. Auxilius is designed to manage the needs of all stakeholders with full transparency and provides integrated functionality to manage external partners.
AlleyWatch caught up with Auxilius CEO Adam Weisman to learn more about the business, the company’s strategic plans, recent round of funding, and much, much more…
Who were your investors and how much did you raise?
We announced that Auxilius has raised $10M in Series A funding. The round was led by Renegade Partners, with participation from previous investors Bain Capital Ventures and XYZ Venture Capital, as well as a number of prominent angel investors, including Andy Palmer (Koa Labs), Chase Gilbert (Built Technologies), and Sam Whitaker (Greenphire).
Tell us about the product or service that Auxilius offers.
Auxilius is a Financial Planning & Analysis and Accounting software platform that unifies disparate clinical, contractual, and financial data to empower biotech companies to streamline core workflows, hold outsourced vendors accountable through change, and put processes in place that support audit, compliance, and reporting requirements. The platform was built to serve the needs and pace of growth at emerging, scaling, and mature biotech companies – providing the same financial and operational rigor that would exist at a top 10 pharma company for less than the cost of a full-time employee.
What inspired the start of Auxilius?
The life sciences industry spends billions on software and IT, 90% of all drug companies still use spreadsheets and manual reconciliation of data for clinical trial accounting, financial management, risk monitoring and reporting. Biotech finance leaders are faced with managing a financial landscape that includes outsourced vendors, complex patient data, and various dependencies throughout the drug development journey. With deep industry expertise, our founders and executives had seen the problem firsthand and wanted to solve this major pain point by crafting a SaaS platform that packages the process, rigor, and efficiency needed to successfully manage a trial into a seamless and intuitive toolset.
How is Auxilius different?
Auxilius is the first SaaS solution built exclusively to solve the financial complexity of clinical trials, a significant hurdle for life sciences companies of all sizes.
What market does Auxilius target and how big is it?
Auxilius serves emerging and scaling biotech companies, which number in the thousands worldwide and represent hundreds of billions of dollars in funding and market capitalization.
What’s your business model?
Auxilius is a subscription-based SaaS product that offers functionality across finance and accounting workflows.
What are your post-COVID office plans?
We’ve been loving our Industrious coworking space in Soho and our NYC-based team uses that as our home base, although we have a flexible, hybrid model that supports individual preference. With employees all over the world, we give everyone the flexibility to work where it makes sense for them.
What was the funding process like?
We were lucky to have a strong network from some of our early advisors and participants in our seed round and gained strong allies like our lead investor, Renegade Partners, as well as a group of prominent angel investors.
What are the biggest challenges that you faced while raising capital?
As a small company and wearing many hats, as I’m sure many founders find, it is challenging to focus on fundraising while also driving momentum in the business. I think we managed it well by being disciplined about The Most Important Thing in any given week.
What factors about your business led your investors to write the check?
We were incredibly fortunate to work with mission-driven partners who saw the need, supported the vision, and have plans to help us succeed.
What are the milestones you plan to achieve in the next six months?
We expect the solution to be deployed at 25 clients by end-of-year and plan to hire rapidly to support its growth.
What advice can you offer companies in New York that do not have a fresh injection of capital in the bank?
For other leaders, the recommendation I give is to plan now, not later. You should have a plan and stick to it, while also being flexible enough to adapt as circumstances change (hello, COVID!). I also say to hire thoughtfully and focus on your biggest business imperative: delivering value to customers and increasing that value over time.
What’s your favorite outdoor dining restaurant in NYC?
My favorite outdoor dining in NYC has been Pinch – I highly recommend!
