CherryCircle Software Raises $2MM in Additional Seed Financing

Yes indeed, CherryCircle just knocked out a $2MM additional round of seed financing.

While what we do is critical to drug development’s long-term success, alas, we know that talking about manufacturing to the press is about as exciting as reading through a regulatory docket.

But, closing a financing round, especially in today’s wacky environment, is something to celebrate, don’t you think?

So, following the trailblazing tact of eschewing traditional releases from our fellow Austinites at Decent, we’re using this space to talk plainly about our raise and about what we do. We are all stuck in home offices while kids climb on us during Zoom calls, so let’s have some fun and use 2020 as the excuse to ignore the formality.

Another Notch In CherryCircle’s Fundraising Belt

$2 million in additional seed funding. Or, if you want to be specific, according to our Form-D, it’s $2,108,647.30. That, combined with our last raise, brings our total fundraising to around $4.6M

That’s right. Not only did we close this round, but it was oversubscribed! Wait. What? While this wasn’t as big as a federal stimulus package, it was definitely bigger than your average PPP loan.

We have two new major investors: S3 Ventures and Wanxiang Healthcare Investments. We have follow-on investments from ATX Venture Partners, Hudson Park Capital, and Cartmell Ventures. And, of course, the continuous and tremendous support of our friends and family who have backed us financially (and emotionally) since inception.

This round marks a turning point where, for the first time, institutional capital (e.g., VC funds) exceeds friends and family.

Let’s hear what our new all-star investors from S3 have to say. Eric, your thoughts?

“When we met CherryCircle, it was immediately clear that the co-founders, Yash Sabharwal and Ryan Shillington, had assembled the kind of team you really need to tackle a high-stakes problem in a highly technical and regulated industry like Pharma. With this team, they have built a compelling solution to advance urgent changes in a critical industry.”

Eric Engineer, Partner, S3 Ventures

And the Foxhole Award Goes To…

We are excited to have these investor groups participating, and many for the second time (thank you again, ATX VP).

But, we need a special shout out to our director, Emma Cartmell, for jumping into the trenches with us to get this round done. She is the connective tissue that helped bring this round together. When it comes time to get busy, you want board members that will get into the foxhole with you, and she did exactly that to help us get this round closed in the midst of a global pandemic.

OK. Great! But I’m Sorry. Who Are You?

Great question. Hang on.

The pharma and biotech industries are currently in the middle of a renaissance period as they develop genuinely innovative therapies to treat the most challenging diseases. It’s pretty cool. What’s happening with the COVID vaccine race is an excellent display of these capabilities on steroids (the good kind that doesn’t require ventilation).

The new modalities of cell and gene therapies produce sci-fi style treatments where we train our own immune system to attack cancer cells, develop monoclonal antibodies to treat a myriad of auto-immune diseases, and now employ the machinery of RNA and DNA to develop vaccines in record time.

However, the biology of these new modalities is very complex, and so are the steps used to manufacture these therapies.

As these treatments get more personalized and specific to diseases, the manufacturing volumes are getting smaller, and the number of runs more frequent. These realities all come together to elongate the development timelines that often last 8-12 years to get a new treatment to patients.

So, today’s manufacturer needs to deal with more complexity, at a smaller scale (less ROI or room for mistakes), and faster turnaround times. Great.

Do More, With Less: A Familiar Tune

You might think that with such exquisite technologies being used to develop the latest therapies that the pharma/biotech industry would be well underway with its digital transformation efforts, especially as it relates to manufacturing.

Well, you would be wrong, but we forgive you.

As companies move through their manufacturing development lifecycle to learn how to make these new drugs, they predominantly use paper to document their information. That’s right, you know, the ~2000-year-old technology that comes from trees. The “more advanced” ones use the modern equivalent of that, which are Word docs turned into PDFs. The manufacturing data and information generated over multiple years of manufacturing development is primarily stored as documents, spreadsheets, flowcharts, emails, etc.

Imagine trying to look up that restaurant you went to last year, but instead of going online and searching your credit card transactions, you had to dig through a filing cabinet of individual paper statements. Now try to make a graph of your annual spending. Good luck with that.

And it gets worse. These PDFs and all of the other information are stored in multiple different systems, software solutions, and in numerous other locations.

For this problem, we’re not just talking about start-ups. Even big companies still rely on Microsoft Office for their institutional knowledge.

A 2018 McKinsey study found that out of nine major industrial sectors, the pharma industry’s digital maturity came in at number 8, only better than the public sector. This stat certainly contributes to the long development timelines and recent high profile regulatory rejections because of manufacturing issues.

By the way, talk about a security nightmare!

Ok, maybe you didn’t want to know how the proverbial sausage gets made. Or, maybe that experience is all too real. We know, and that is why we have built the QbDVision® software platform: to fix a broken system.

Chris Shonk, one of our esteemed investors from ATX Venture Partners, says it best.

“Never has there been a more urgent time for drug development companies to harness the innovation and modern production processes that have brought exponential efficiency and quality control to the manufacturing world. QbDVision is the first-mover and thought leader elevating the entire pharmaceutical & biotechnology to a new standard of excellence the industry has yet to harness.”

Chris Shonk, Partner, ATX Venture Partners

Good news. Change Is Coming.


QbDVision is the first comprehensive, cloud-based, structured software solution designed specifically for the pharma/biotech industry to allow users to aggregate, organize, contextualize, and track their process development information in accordance with international regulatory requirements.

Yes, that was a mouthful.

Once the information is in our structured repository, it opens a new world of visualization and analytical tools to help you make smarter decisions about your process. Over time, this leads to real process intelligence and understanding which unlocks the next level of the game, prediction. Are we talking about AI/ML? Yes, but there is a lot we can do before we have to deploy AI/ML. Imagine building a visual map of how the inputs to your process affect your outputs and tracing them all the way to the final product. Add a visual layer of risk to the map where each input gets color-coded based on the risk level. Now you can trace and predict how the variability of all your inputs will affect an output before you run your manufacturing process. Genius!

When you can see what you are doing, you are less prone to make mistakes. If something does go wrong, you can quickly diagnose it and make adjustments. . And, if you have unlocked the prediction level, then you can figure it out before it goes wrong, which will save everyone a lot of time and money.

The Industry 4.0 revolution underway in other sectors is making its way to pharma/biotech, and we are playing a big role.

No Time To Sit Back

Since its inception, CherryCircle has been leading the conversation around knowledge management, risk management, and quality management for the pharma/biotech industry.

Our fancy, new financing round is just what we needed to accelerate our efforts around sales, marketing, product development, customer education, and thought leadership.

While others are running in circles with blockchain technology and AI/ML, we know that the industry has to learn to walk before it can run with respect to digital transformation. This is especially true for the development of more complex manufacturing processes.

Stay tuned to this bat channel.

Shameless plug: we’ll be a guest on the “Rock Stars of R&D” from the 20/15 Visioneers on Oct 28. Come and listen to the future.

Diana Bowley

Associate Director, Data & Digital Strategy, AbbVie

Diana is the Associate Director, Data & Digital Strategy in S&T-Biologics Development and Launch leading the organization’s Digital Transformation since October 2021. She joined AbbVie in 2012 in the R&D-Discovery Biologics group focused on antibody and multi-specific protein screening and engineering, leading multiple programs to the cell line development stage. In 2017 she joined Information Research and led a team of IT professionals who supported AbbVie’s Discovery Scientists in Biotherapeutics, Chemistry, Immunology and Neuroscience. She has a PhD in Molecular Biology from The Scripps Research Institute and Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from The University of Northern Iowa.

Robert Dimitri, M.S., M.B.A.

Director Digital Quality Systems, Thermo Fisher Scientific

Robert Dimitri is a Director of Digital Quality Systems in Thermofisher’s Pharma Services Group. Previously he was a Digital Transformation and Innovation Lead in Takeda’s Business Excellence for the Biologics Operating Unit while leading Digital and Data Sciences groups in Manufacturing Sciences at Takeda’s Massachusetts Biologics Site.

Devendra Deshmukh

Global Head, Digital Science Business Operations, Thermo Fisher Scientific

Devendra Deshmukh currently leads Global Business Operations for Digital Science Solutions at Thermo Fisher Scientific. In this role he oversees operations broadly for the business across its product portfolio and leads the global professional services, technical support, and product education teams.

Grant Henderson

Sr. Dir. Manufacturing Science and Technology, VernalBio

Grant Henderson is the Senior Director of Manufacturing Science and Technology at Vernal Biosciences. He has years of expertise in pharmaceutical manufacturing process development/characterization, advanced design of experiments, and principles of operational excellence.

Ryan Nielsen

Life Sciences Global Sales Director, Rockwell Automation

Ryan Nielsen is the Life Sciences Global Sales Director at Rockwell Automation. He has over 17 years of industry experience and a passion for collaboration in solving complex problems and adding value to the life sciences space.

Shameek Ray

Head of Quality Manufacturing Informatics, Zifo

Shameek Ray is the Head of Quality Manufacturing Informatics and Zifo and has extensive experience in implementing laboratory informatics and automation for life sciences, forensics, consumer goods, chemicals, food and beverage, and crop science industries. With his background in services, consulting, and product management, he has helped numerous labs embark on their digital transformation journey.

Max Peterson​

Lab Data Automation Practice Manager, Zifo

Max Petersen is the Lab Data Automation Practice Manager at Zifo responsible for developing strategy for their Lab Data Automation Solution (LDAS) offerings. He has over 20 years of experience in informatics and simulation technologies in life sciences, chemicals, and materials applications.

Michael Stapleton

Board Director, QbDVision

Michael Stapleton is a life sciences leader with success spanning leadership roles in software, consumables, instruments, services, consulting, and pharmaceuticals. He is a constant innovator, optimist, influencer, and digital thought leader identifying the next strategic challenge in life sciences, executing and operationalizing on high impact strategic plans to drive growth.

Matthew Schulze

Head of Digital Pioneering Medicines & Regulatory Systems, Flagship Pioneering

Matt Schulze is currently leading Digital for Pioneering Medicines which is focused on conceiving and developing a unique portfolio of life-changing treatments for patients by leveraging the innovative scientific platforms and technologies within the ecosystem of Flagship Pioneering companies.

Daniel R. Matlis

Founder and President, Axendia

Daniel R. Matlis is the Founder and President of Axendia, an analyst firm providing trusted advice to life science executives on business, technology, and regulatory issues. He has three decades of industry experience spanning all life science and is an active contributor to FDA’s Case for Quality Initiative. Dan is also a member of the FDA’s advisory council on modeling, simulation, and in-silico clinical trials and co-chaired the Product Quality Outcomes Analytics initiative with agency officials.

Kir Henrici

CEO, The Henrici Group

Kir is a life science consultant working domestically and internationally for over 12 years in support of quality and compliance for pharma and biotech. Her deep belief in adopting digital technology and data analytics as the foundation for business excellence and life science innovation has made her a key member of PDA and ISPE – she currently serves on the PDA Regulatory Affairs/Quality Advisory Board

Oliver Hesse

VP & Head of Biotech Data Science & Digitalization, Bayer Pharmaceuticals

Oliver Hesse is the current VP & Head of Biotech Data Science & Digitalization for Bayer, based in Berkeley, California. He has a degree in Biotechnology from TU Berlin and started his career in a Biotech start-up in Germany before joining Bayer in 2008 to work on automation, digitalization, and the application of data science in the biopharmaceutical industry.

John Maguire

Director of Manufacturing Sciences, Sanofi mRNA Center of Excellence

With over 18 years of process engineering experience, John is an expert in the application of process engineering and operational technology in support of the production of life science therapeutics. His work includes plant capability analysis, functional specification development, and the start-up of drug substance manufacturing facilities in Ireland and the United States.

Chris Kopinski

Business Development Executive, Life Sciences and Healthcare at AWS

As a Business Development Executive at Amazon Web Services, Chris leads teams focused on tackling customer problems through digital transformation. This experience includes leading business process intelligence and data science programs within the global technology organizations and improving outcomes through data-driven development practices.

Tim Adkins

Digital Life Science Operations, ZÆTHER

Tim Adkins is a Director of Digital Life Sciences Operations at ZÆTHER, serving the life science industry by assisting companies reach their desired business outcomes through digital IT/OT solutions. He has 30 years of industry experience as an IT/OT leader in global operational improvements and support, manufacturing system design, and implementation programs.

Blake Hotz

Manufacturing Sciences Data Manager, Sanofi

At Sanofi’s mRNA Center of Excellence, Blake Hotz focuses on developing data ingestion and cleaning workflows using digital tools. He has over 5 years of experience in biotech and holds degrees in Chemical Engineering (B.S.) and Biomedical Engineering (M.S.) from Tufts University.

Anthony DeBiase

Offering Manager, Rockwell Automation

Anthony has over 14 years of experience in the life science industry focusing on process development, operational technology (OT) implementation, technology transfer, CMC and cGMP manufacturing in biologics, cell therapies, and regenerative medicine.

Andy Zheng

Data Solution Architect, ZÆTHER

Andy Zheng is a Data Solution Architect at ZÆTHER who strives to grow and develop cutting-edge solutions in industrial automation and life science. His years of experience within the software automation field focused on bringing innovative solutions to customers which improve process efficiency.

Sue Plant

Phorum Director, Regulatory CMC, Biophorum

Sue Plant is the Phorum Director of Regulatory CMC at BioPhorum, a leading network of biopharmaceutical organizations that aims to connect, collaborate, and accelerate innovation. With over 20 years of experience in life sciences, regulatory, and technology, she focuses on improving access to medicines through innovation in the regulatory ecosystem.

Yash Sabharwal​

President & CEO, QbDVision

Yash Sabharwal is an accomplished inventor, entrepreneur, and executive specializing in the funding and growth of early-stage technology companies focused on life science applications. He has started 3 companies and successfully exited his last two, bringing a wealth of strategic and tactical experience to the team.

Joschka Buyel

Senior MSAT Scientist at Viralgen, Process and Knowledge Management Scientist at Bayer AG

Joschka is responsible for the rollout and integration of QbDVision at Bayer Pharmaceuticals. He previously worked on various late-stage projects as a Quality-by-Design Expert for Product & Process Characterization, Process Validation, and Transfers. Joschka has a Ph.D. in Drug Sciences from Bonn University and a M.S. and B.S. in Molecular and Applied Biotechnology from the RWTH University.

Luke Guerrero

COO, QbDVision

A veteran technologist and company leader with a global CV, Luke currently oversees the core business operations across QbDVision and its teams. Before joining QbDVision, he developed, grew, and led key practices for international agency Brand Networks, and spent six years deploying technology and business strategies for PricewaterhouseCoopers’ CIO Advisory consulting unit.

Gloria Gadea Lopez

Head of Global Consultancy, Business Platforms | Ph.D., Biosystems Engineering

Gloria Gadea-Lopez is the Head of Global Consultancy at Business Platforms. Using her prior extensive experience in the biopharmaceutical industry, she supports companies in developing strategies and delivering digital systems for successful operations. She holds degrees in Chemical Engineering, Food Science (M.S.), and Biosystems Engineering (Ph.D.)

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