By shifting from animals to an exclusively human optimization preclinical process, Vivodyne has raised $40 million in new Series A financing to scale its robotics+AI approach to testing on thousands of lab-grown, fully-functional human tissues, and the massive amount of human data they generate. With the new financing, Vivodyne will open a 23,000-square-foot fully robotic laboratory at Genesis Marina in South San Francisco. The new facility significantly increases preclinical human testing capacity to meet surging demand from global pharmaceutical clients, particularly spurred on by the recent commitments by FDA and NIH to move away from less-predictive animal models.

The investment was led by Khosla Ventures, with participation from new investors Lingotto Investment Management, Helena Capital, Fortius Ventures, and existing investors Kairos Ventures, CS Ventures, Bison Ventures, and MBX Capital.

Vivodyne is rendering inaccurate animal testing obsolete, using automated robotic platforms and AI to grow and analyze thousands of fully functional human tissues. Pharmaceutical companies historically have spent millions on clinical trials destined to fail 95% of the time because animal models are poor predictors of human biology. Vivodyne solves this problem by providing unprecedented, clinically relevant human data at massive scale. Already used by most top pharma companies, Vivodyne's platform significantly reduces trial risk, accelerates drug discovery, and brings safer, more effective therapies to patients faster.