LABVELOCITY LAUNCHES ONLINE SCIENCE AND LAB PRODUCTS MARKETPLACE
Site Accelerating Scientific Discovery Process Receives Second Round of Funding
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.--(COLLEGIATE PRESSWIRE)--Sept. 27, 2000--Providing a revolutionary way to expedite scientific research, LabVelocity, Inc.
(www.labvelocity.com) today announced the launch of its online science and laboratory products marketplace offering free, Internet-based resources for the life sciences industry. The company also announced it has closed a “Series B” round of funding of $8 million from Acacia Venture Partners and Venrock Associates, illustrating significant support for its unique business model.
LabVelocity partners with leading life science product and service suppliers to provide scientists with a comprehensive and proprietary set of applications including parametric product search tools, comparison tables, experimental protocols, reference materials, detailed maps of DNA vectors, conversion calculators and other software tools, all of which are integrated to create a highly efficient platform. In beta testing, it was shown that scientists using LabVelocity could find products and information needed to execute experiments significantly faster than using traditional methods.
“LabVelocity offers a free, fast and extremely efficient way for scientists to gather the information needed to conduct experiments,” explained Gary H. Stroy, Chief Executive Officer, LabVelocity. “Using our site, scientists no longer need to search through catalogues or memorize specific product information when attempting to locate products. Our unique technology not only saves scientists substantial time when conducting experiments, but it also accelerates scientific discovery, leads to more accurate results and thus increases efficiency in the scientific workplace.”
''LabVelocity provides a very unique and useful site for the biomedical research community,'' said Patrick Latterell, General Partner, Venrock Associates. ''We believe the company has an excellent business model, built on providing outstanding tools and services for the biomedical researcher while at the same time providing an attractive forum for product suppliers to market their company and products to this target audience. We invested in LabVelocity because we have a high degree of confidence in its seasoned management team, its impressive product offering and its solid business model, which has already proved successful with dozens of participating suppliers and thousands of researchers actively using the site.''
How it Works—A Scenario
A scientist logs on to his customized
LabVelocity home page to check the latest results of his automated literature search agent. He finds an interesting article reference, bookmarks the abstract in his personal Lab Manager database and then accesses the journal’s website to download the article.
The paper suggests an experiment he would like to apply to his own research, but a crucial method in the paper involving protein expression has neglected to cite the manufacturer of a new vector. He returns to LabVelocity, easily navigates through the Product section, specifies features of the desired vector, clicks “Search”, and quickly locates the product.
After saving the vector to his personal Product List, he accesses the related vector maps and protocol to gather more information on how to use the vector. He also uses the product hyperlinks from the related protocol to add other necessary reagents to his Product List. He then prints out the Product List and orders the products. His research has taken a new direction and he hasn’t even left his chair!
''I found [LabVelocity] very easy to use and helpful,” said LabVelocity user Ken Field, Ph.D., University of California, San Francisco. “I browsed the protocol listings and found an immunofluorescence protocol which I now use. More importantly, the protocol contained a link to a great product that I hadn`t heard of (in fact I had never heard of the company before). I printed out the description of the VectaShield mounting reagent and ordered [the product] from Vector Laboratories. I used to make my own anti-fading mounting reagent -- now I don`t have to.
Without your website I never would have found this great product.''
About LabVelocity
San Francisco, CA-based
LabVelocity Inc., a privately held company, was founded in June, 1999, by Dave Balducci and Erik Lium, Ph.D., two scientists from the University of California, San Francisco. Balducci and Lium agreed that locating and ordering scientific supplies was both time-consuming and frustrating, and both recognized the need to aggregate scientific literature, tools and products into a comprehensive website resource. LabVelocity combines the experience of a team of life scientists from both industry and academia, as well as a premier executive team, board of directors and advisors that represent the most esteemed scientific organizations and institutions. Early-round investors include Acacia Venture Partners and Venrock Associates. For more information visit the site at
www.labvelocity.com. # # #
LabVelocity and the LabVelocity logo are trademarks of LabVelocity. Other trademarks and registered trademarks are the properties of their respective owners.
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