Ryght AI raises $3 million to use “agentic AI” to automate processes at trial sites

Healthcare technology firm Ryght AI has raised $3 million to “digitize” clinical trial sites in its growing network.

Ryght AI completed the fundraising round last week, with California venture capital organization - Foothill Ventures – joining existing backers AIX Ventures, Virtue Ventures, IASO Ventures, Top Harvest Capital and Page One Ventures.

The money will further Ryght Ai’s effort to use its software-as-service model to automate manual processes and foster links between research sites according to CEO, Simon Arkell.

“Our vision is to unite the world’s clinical trial sites into one intelligent, real-time ecosystem,” he said, adding, “Through the use of agentic AI across a real-time global network, Ryght doesn’t just accelerate activation, it drives real-time collaboration between sponsors, their CROs and sites so breakthroughs reach patients faster than ever.”

For the uninitiated, agentic AI is a class of artificial intelligence that focuses on autonomous systems that make decisions and perform tasks without human intervention. Since its foundation in 2023, Ryght AI claims to have seen “rapid adoption” of its agentic software, which it says has been popular with biotech and pharma sponsors and CROs.

One acknowledged user of the technology is US preclinical studies and clinical trials contractor, QPS Holdings, which partnered with Ryght AI in January in a deal that added 750 sites in 17 countries to its network.

And the collaboration has been positive according to Timothy Sirard, global head of feasibility and senior director for clinical business development, QPS, who spoke about its impact in a statement last week.

“The way that most in the industry identify sites for trial activation and enrollment typically involves downloading spreadsheets of site data from various data vendors with old and inaccurate information, poring over the data to identify investigators and sites that might fit a specific trial, then reaching out to those sites with depressingly low response rates.

“For QPS, what used to take weeks of back-and-forth can now happen in days, and our teams instead focus on efficiently activating sites that we know are high quality, provide access to the patients and will successfully enroll – across all geographies,” he said.

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