Dash Bio has successfully secured a funding round of $30 million. The investment was made by life sciences venture funds, which aim to accelerate innovation through the company's automated bioanalysis platform for pharmaceutical enterprises. Oak HC/FT led this round, joining existing investors Freestyle Capital and Swift Ventures.
The funds will allow Dash Bio to expand its laboratory capabilities, enhance its proprietary software, and implement additional bioanalysis services globally. This platform helps speed up the drug discovery process by increasing testing throughput at all stages of therapeutic development, both early and late.
Dash Bio stated that its headquarters will support commercial growth, laboratory expansion, and a broader range of global bioanalysis services. The company is continuously developing its patented laboratory operating system, utilizing robotics and advanced automation technologies worldwide.
Bioanalysis remains one of the longest, most complex, and most expensive processes in healthcare, determining treatment safety and efficacy during development. Despite automation in other areas, bioanalysis still heavily relies on manual operations and paper-based laboratory data management systems.
Dash Bio's automated system reduces lab testing times from months to days by using modern scientific workflow automation technology. The company has created an automation-focused platform that significantly reduces lab turnaround time, increases pricing transparency, and improves traceability for clients.
Dash Bio operates a 24,000 square foot GLP laboratory equipped with robotic cells controlled by proprietary automation software. The platform supports ELISA, MSD, qPCR, ddPCR, and LC-MS assays while reducing labor costs and lab time.
Unlike traditional CROs, Dash Bio consistently provides preclinical trial results within days rather than months. The platform helps drug developers accelerate timelines, improve project budgets, and overall research efficiency.
The founders of Dash Bio are CEO Dave Johnson, COO Andrew Tallett, and CSO Eli Porter. They founded the company with the belief that the pace of scientific progress should dictate development timelines, not laboratory process limitations.
Since launching its go-to-market strategy about nine months ago, Dash Bio has achieved significant commercial success. The company has signed contracts with over 30 clients, including four out of fifteen leading global pharmaceutical companies.
Clients note that key advantages of the platform are fast turnaround times and transparent pricing compared to traditional lab service providers. These capabilities are becoming increasingly valuable as pharmaceutical companies strive for faster clinical development and more efficient research operations.
Oak HC/FT highlighted the founding team's experience in building digital and automation infrastructure at Moderna as a key factor in their investment. The firm's partners believe that Dash Bio has developed a scalable platform capable of transforming laboratory services for modern drug creation.
As pharmaceutical companies continue to integrate advanced technologies into R&D, demand for automated laboratory infrastructure is expected to grow. Dash Bio plans to use the new funding to strengthen its position in this growing market and help clients bring new drugs to patients faster.
Horizon3, a San Francisco-based company specializing in artificial intelligence-driven cybersecurity, has secured $250 million in Series E funding. The funds will be used to further expand its platform internationally across the globe. Following this round, the company's valuation exceeded $2 billion.
This valuation is more than triple the approximately $600 million achieved during the previous funding round a year ago. The investment is intended to support Horizon3's native cybersecurity expansion into international corporate markets and client operational activities.
The funding was led by NightDragon and NEA, with participation from existing and new global strategic investors. The company plans to accelerate innovation and strengthen proactive cybersecurity capabilities for enterprises facing increasingly complex, AI-driven threats.
The raised capital will be utilized for global sales development, marketing expansion, market growth, and initiatives to develop autonomous cybersecurity technologies worldwide. Horizon3 intends to increase its presence in Europe and enter the Singaporean and Australian markets through strategic international expansion.
The company will increase R&D investments to enhance its NodeZero platform and AI-based security agents. These autonomous agents are capable of effectively and automatically detecting and remediating vulnerabilities within enterprise IT systems.
The investment will also go towards strengthening the proactive AI security platform and accelerating the innovation process. This financing follows growing enterprise demand for protection against AI-driven cyber threats and evolving regulatory compliance requirements.
Snehal Antani and Anthony Pillitiere, former colleagues from JSOC, founded Horizon3 with the goal of automating penetration testing via NodeZero. NodeZero continuously attacks client networks using self-guided penetration testing technology to proactively detect cybersecurity vulnerabilities.
Unlike annual audits, the platform safely tests live production environments using fully automated continuous security testing capabilities. This helps enterprises identify attack vectors, prioritize security weaknesses, and quickly and efficiently implement remediation measures.
The company reported conducting over 310,000 security tests in client production environments globally. Unlike traditional testers, Horizon3 assesses the entire enterprise infrastructure while production systems continue to operate uninterrupted.
The platform also incorporates intelligent honeypots that help organizations detect active attackers targeting enterprise systems in real time. Currently, the platform is used by over 7,000 enterprises across sectors such as banking, healthcare, public administration, and Fortune 10 companies worldwide.
The rapid adoption of AI has changed the approach to how security issues arise. For instance, an attacker with the right automated approach can quickly identify weaknesses and initiate complex attacks faster than manual methods, which reinforces the automation of security assessment.
Horizon3 reported a year-over-year recurring revenue growth of approximately 120%, noting that its annual recurring revenue approached $100 million last year. The company serves between 7,200 and 7,300 clients globally, including managed service providers and some of the world's largest corporations.
The new funding will also support the development of AI training loops, allowing AI defense systems to continuously improve by analyzing new attack methodologies. This should support enterprises' efforts to move from simple vulnerability awareness to the ability to automatically mitigate the most severe security threats.
Given that new cyber threats emerge at 'machine speed' and with high sophistication, the company asserts that AI-based security testing is indispensable for enterprises seeking to protect critical assets and confidential data.
