News & Events

Source: Betakit Canadian Startup News&Tech Innovation

Recently, ACTO, a Canadian technology company focusing on life sciences, an early investment enterprise of China Canada Angel Alliance (CCAA for short) managed by Zhongguancun Dahe Capital, recently announced that it had completed a round A financing of 11.5 million US dollars (15 million Canadian dollars).

This round of financing is led by Resolve Growth Partners, a Baltimore based growth equity fund, which focuses on investing in companies with a recurring income scale of $3 million to $10 million, with an investment quota of $5 million to $30 million. As part of the transaction, Chris Rhodes, the co-founder and managing director of Resolve, has joined the board of directors of ACTO. This round also included the investment of the existing investor Panache Ventures and the strategic capital of the new investor Salesforce Ventures, which had previously invested in Vidyard, Stripe, Dropbox and DocuSign.

CEO Parth Khanna said that this round of financing will help ACTO to promote the vision of building the world’s best all life science education and life science participation ecosystem. ACTO will work closely with agencies and technical partners, on the one hand, continue to enhance ACTO’s on-site and HCP oriented capabilities, on the other hand, it will accelerate the creation of the largest business learning and development product portfolio of life science, and expand the field of patient education.

ACTO was founded in 2014, named after “Act Today”, to provide life science sales personnel with training, analysis and data tracking. The ultimate goal of ACTO is to change the current promotion and marketing methods of drugs and equipment in the medical industry.

ACTO has developed a mobile platform based on artificial intelligence to provide education, participation and support for sales professionals in the life science field. Its APP provides mobile micro learning, digital briefcase, remote guidance, virtual training and on-site activities. According to the company, global pharmaceutical and medical device companies can access insights in real time to improve clinical value, thereby increasing sales, increasing brand influence and reducing compliance risks. It is understood that ACTO has covered more than 50 life science companies worldwide (including AstraZeneca, Teleflex and Philips Responics) as customers. ACTO’s focus on the US market increased the company’s revenue by 30 times. At present, tens of thousands of sales representatives in more than 90 countries/regions use the APP every day.

ACTO will continue to develop its technology with round A financing of $11.5 million. Through new products, sales representatives, doctors, nurses and other healthcare providers (HCPs) will be able to access clinical information about drugs and devices using conversational AI.

CEO Khanna said: “It takes an average of 2 billion dollars and 14 years to bring drugs from the laboratory to the bedside, but when these products enter the market, senior managers have no objective data returned from the scene to show whether their sales strategies are effective. Now, drug and equipment manufacturers need to rethink how to promote their brand strategy, outreach strategy and patient education more than ever before, so as to keep moving forward in a more virtual environment Momentum, round A financing will help us to promote the establishment of the world’s best life science education and life science participation ecosystem. We will work closely with our agencies and technical partners to continue to enhance ACTO’s on-site and HCP oriented capabilities. We will also accelerate the creation of the largest life science business learning and development product portfolio, and expand the field of patient education. “

Chris Rhodes, co-founder and managing director of this round of leading investor Resolve, said, “We are very happy to have the opportunity to cooperate with ACTO. The founding team of the company reflects the thirst for knowledge, humility and obsession with customers that we like to see among entrepreneurs. At the same time, the customer feedback of ACTO is the strongest recommendation we have heard over the years. Obviously, they are building a market leading platform for the life science industry.” Up to now, the total financing amount of ACTO has reached 14.1 million US dollars. Previously, investors included the well-known Canadian investment institution MaRS IAF, the China Canada Angel Alliance CCAA, Extreme Venture Partners and Panache VC.