Viaken Systems, Inc. yesterday announced it received $3.7 million in its first round of funding.
Viaken Systems Inc. is a full service provider of ASPs for the life sciences, providing enabling solutions for biotechnology, pharmaceutical and agricultural companies.
GCI Venture Partners (Washington, D.C.) led the round with a $2 million contribution. Mid-Atlantic Venture Funds and Core Capital Partners together accounted for the remaining $1.7 million.
“We are very pleased to be partnering with GCI Venture Partners,” Dr. Keith Elliston , president, Viaken, said. “They are extremely knowledgeable about the IT and biopharmaceutical industries and understand that research informatics applications must be readily accessible and affordable for all types of organizations.”
According to James Serum, executive vice president, Viaken will use the money raised to expand its breadth of services
into the chemical informatics arena.
GCI Venture Partners provides early stage seed and growth capital for technology companies in the Mid-Atlantic region.
“The Viaken management structure is fantastic and its credibility within the industry can clearly be seen through its management team,” Mark Levine, managing member, GCI Venture Funding.
Serum explained to ASP-News, “Keith and myself built this company around a known customer need, which is very well defined, and have implemented a very senior management team.
When asked if GCI focuses on ASPs, Levine told ASP-News, “We have a history of supporting companies that provide infrastructure support to industries and clearly the ASP model fits that criteria.”
GCI is confident in its ability to spot early trends, as will be proved with Viaken. “The size of this opportunity is tremendous,” Levine said. “Viaken is offering products and services that we feel the informatics industries will be very receptive to.”