The people
What they build
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On the TechTO stage
BenchSci and F-Prime Capital
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Forget Everything You Know About Fundraising
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About
BenchSci started in 2015 when four founders met at the University of Toronto's Creative Destruction Lab and set out to teach a computer to understand science the way a PhD scientist does. Its first product, AI-Assisted Reagent Selection, read the experimental data buried in millions of published papers so bench scientists could find the right antibody, then RNAi and CRISPR reagents, faster. That grew into ASCEND, an AI platform that maps disease biology to help pharma teams triage targets, explore mechanisms, and cut trial-and-error out of preclinical R&D. At its TechTO-stage peak the company had grown past 400 people, served 14 of the top 20 global pharmaceutical companies and thousands of research facilities, and had raised over $130M across seven rounds. The years since brought a reset: layoff rounds in January 2024 (~17% of staff) and 2025 took headcount to roughly 292 (LinkedIn, July 2026), while the official total raised stands at $218M CAD (US$170M) through the May 2023 Series D.
Backers
- Generation Investment Management (led the 2023 Series D)
- Inovia Capital (led the Series A; investor across later rounds)
- TCV (Series D)
- F-Prime Capital (led the Series B)
- Gradient Ventures, Google's AI fund (Series A)
- Golden Ventures (early-stage investor)
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Quick answers
What does BenchSci do?
BenchSci taught a computer to understand science like a PhD scientist and built its ASCEND platform on top of a knowledge graph drawn from millions of biomedical papers and experiments. Pharma teams use it to pick reagents, map disease biology, and cut trial-and-error out of preclinical drug discovery.
Who uses BenchSci?
As of its 2023 TechTO talk, BenchSci served 14 of the top 20 global pharmaceutical companies plus thousands of research facilities; the company's own count as of 2026 is 16 of the top 20. The company has also announced partnerships with Sanofi, Thermo Fisher Scientific, and Mila to develop AI for drug discovery.
Who founded BenchSci and when?
It was founded in Toronto in 2015 by Liran Belenzon, Tom Leung, David Q. Chen, and Elvis Wianda, who met at the University of Toronto's Creative Destruction Lab. Belenzon is co-founder and CEO.