TMRW Life Sciences Raises $25 Million In Series B Funding Led By 5AM Ventures
World's First Operating System for Software-Guided Embryology and Cryo-Specimen Management Will Bring New Levels of Safety to IVF
Appoints Former Everyday Health and Refinery29 Executive Melanie Goldey as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer
Dec 17, 2019, 09:00 ET
NEW YORK, Dec. 17, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- TMRW Life Sciences ("TMRW"), creator of ivfOS™, an integrated platform for automated, software-guided embryology and cryo-management, announced today it has closed $25 million in Series B funding led by 5AM Ventures. This recent funding brings total investment in TMRW to $39 million over the past 12 months.
The TMRW ivfOS™ platform is poised to play a central role in the conception of tens of millions of people in the coming years. TMRW provides a 100% physical and digital chain of custody, protecting and tracking eggs, embryos, and sperm through RFID-enabled technology.
With 300 million global births predicted as the result of IVF by 2100, the need for IVF clinics to adopt an automated method for managing reproductive cells has never been more crucial. Almost all of these births will stem from vitrified -- or flash-frozen -- cells. Today, IVF clinics are responsible for the management of more than 100 million frozen reproductive cells, a scale which the current manual, analog system is challenged to manage safely.
TMRW's SaaS digital chain of custody platform is designed to eliminate the sample management issues widely reported in the fertility space, including loss of eggs and embryos through human error and implantation mix-ups. TMRW's five leading clinic partners, who account for 10% of all U.S. IVF activity, are preparing for a commercial rollout in Q1 2020.
"No would-be parent should have to worry about whether their vitrified eggs and embryos are safe," said Joshua Abram, Founder and Co-CEO of TMRW. "TMRW has worked with leading physicians, embryologists, and lab directors to create an integrated ivfOS™ platform that combines innovative RFID technology and the highest standards of cryo-management to provide parents security that the fertility cells central to the conception of their children are safe and secure."
"We are enormously excited about the promise of TMRW," said Andy Schwab, 5AM Ventures Managing Partner. "Viewed against the backdrop of hundreds of millions of projected births as the result of advances in IVF treatment, TMRW's contribution could not be more necessary or important."
With the announcement of the closing of the Series B, TMRW appointed Melanie Goldey as its Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer.
Prior to joining TMRW, Goldey was the CFO of Refinery29, the leading diversified media brand for women. Goldey was instrumental to Refinery29's recent merger with VICE Media, which created the largest independent digital media company in the world, valued at $4 billion. Previously, Goldey was an executive at Everyday Health, guiding the firm through multiple acquisitions, a successful IPO, and, ultimately, its sale for nearly $500 million to Ziff Davis.
"Melanie's experience is the perfect preparation for her work at TMRW," noted TMRW Founder and Co-CEO Alan Murray. "She brings a proven track record of quickly and efficiently scaling innovation and creating value for all stakeholders."
"My role at TMRW combines a number of long-held passions: technology, consumer-focused healthcare, and taking companies to the next level so that their innovative solutions can quickly benefit as many people as possible," said Goldey. "The TMRW Founders and team have brought the company to such an inflection point, and I'm thrilled to arrive just as we move from our successful clinical studies into our commercial launch."
TMRW was represented in this transaction by Jon Ain of Kleinberg, Kaplan, Wolff & Cohen, P.C.
About TMRW Life Sciences: TMRW has created the world's first automated ivfOS™ designed specifically for cryo-management of eggs and embryos used in IVF. TMRW's RFID-enabled, 100% digital chain of custody SaaS platform radically improves on the error-prone manual and analog methods that have gone unchanged throughout the history of IVF, significantly reducing the chances of implantation mix-ups or loss of eggs and embryos. The TMRW team includes many of the world's most celebrated innovators in fertility, embryology, vitrification, and cryo-management. TMRW's co-founders, Joshua Abram, Alan Murray, and Dr. Jeffrey Port, are serial tech and life sciences entrepreneurs. Their immediate prior ventures sold for a combined sum of more than $1 billion. For more information, please visit TMRW.org.
About 5AM Ventures: Founded in 2002, 5AM actively invests in next-generation biotech companies. With approximately $1.5 billion raised since inception, 5AM has invested in 78 companies including Arvinas, Audentes Therapeutics, Crinetics Pharmaceuticals, Flexion Therapeutics, Homology Medicines, IDEAYA Biosciences, Ikaria (acquired by Mallinckrodt), Ilypsa (acquired by Amgen), Marcadia Biotech (acquired by Roche), Novira Therapeutics (acquired by J&J), Pearl Therapeutics (acquired by AstraZeneca) and Relypsa (acquired by Vifor Pharma). For more information, please visit www.5amventures.com.
CONTACT: Emily Grosser, (646) 650-5004, [email protected]
SOURCE TMRW Life Sciences
