NEW YORK– Koneksa, the leader in designing and validating digital biomarkers to accelerate drug development, announced today the completion of a $45M Series C financing round, led by AyurMaya, an affiliated fund of Matrix Capital Management, with participation from Takeda Ventures and Velosity Capital.
Existing investors McKesson Ventures, Merck Global Health Innovation Fund, Novartis (dRx Capital), Spring Mountain Capital and Waterline Ventures also joined the financing round. Koneksa has raised approximately $65M in gross proceeds from private financings to date. As part of the financing, Karan Takhar, Senior Managing Director at Matrix will join Koneksa’s Board of Directors.
Koneksa’s digital biomarker platform uses best-in-class advanced algorithms to analyze and integrate real-time patient data in clinical trials from multiple wearables and sensors to create a single, seamless experience for patients, sponsors and research organizations. Digital biomarkers enable more efficient recruitment with a lower patient burden, delivering novel patient insights and previously inaccessible evidence, to enhance the understanding of disease mechanisms and bring medicines to patients faster.
The funding will expand Koneksa’s digital biomarker technology platform and development of the self-service capabilities of its clinical data integration solutions. Koneksa will also expand its scientific team to accelerate digital biomarker development and evidence generation.
As part of the company’s growth, John A. Wagner, M.D., Ph.D., has been appointed as the company’s first Chief Medical Officer (CMO), where he will oversee clinical investment and strategy. With more than 20 years of drug development experience, Dr. Wagner has led more than 150 first-in-human studies and has brought numerous blockbuster programs to market including Januvia (sitagliptin) and Zolinza (vorinostat). Prior to joining Koneksa, John was CMO of Cygnal Therapeutics, and has also held senior leadership roles at Takeda and Merck. He was also a venture partner at Foresite Capital and is Editor-in-Chief of Clinical and Translational Science and an executive committee member of the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health Biomarkers Consortium.
“We contribute to better lives by building health measurements that matter,” said Chris Benko, CEO, Koneksa. “I’m delighted to welcome John Wagner, one of our earliest collaborators and an industry pioneer to our leadership team. We look forward to accelerating development of our biomarker technology platform and expanding our team to deliver more efficient clinical trials.”
“Digital biomarkers are revolutionizing translational science and clinical practice, every bit as impactful as pharmacogenetics or circulating cell-free tumor DNA biomarkers. COVID-19, the rise of remote monitoring, and virtual clinical trials created the circumstances for rapid adoption and success of digital biomarkers. Increased use of digital biomarkers by biopharmaceutical companies will lead to more life-saving therapies for patients,” said Dr. John A. Wagner, Chief Medical Officer, Koneksa. “As a long-time advocate of translational science and biomarkers for drug development and clinical practice, I’m thrilled to join Chris and the Koneksa team to advance the use of digital biomarkers in the life science industry.”
“Koneksa is pioneering the development and application of digital biomarkers by combining deep clinical expertise with a novel analytics platform to transform drug development and patient experiences across a wide range of unmet medical needs,” said Karan Takhar, Senior Managing Director, Matrix. “Our partnership with Koneksa reflects our commitment to back extraordinary teams unlocking breakthrough innovation at the intersection of technology and life sciences. We are excited to work alongside Chris and the Koneksa team to accelerate their impact on patients and clinical science.”
“As a long-term partner, Takeda values the rigorous approach behind Koneksa’s vision to bring validated digital biomarkers to the industry. Our decision to invest is a natural next step as we anticipate that Koneksa’s solutions will have a profound impact on clinical development and disease management,” said Michael Martin, Global Head, Takeda Ventures, Inc.
