Medtech industry Regulatory Information Management (RIM) software provider Rimsys Inc., a Pittsburgh-based startup founded in 2017 by James Gianoutsos, announced the closing of a $16 million Series A financing round led by Silicon Valley-based Bessemer Venture Partners.
It's the latest investment from the venture capital firm which has invested in LinkedIn, Pinterest Inc. (NYSE: PINS), Shopify Inc. (NYSE: SHOP), Twitch and Yelp Inc. (NYSE: YELP), among other high profile companies.
“We are thrilled to partner with Rimsys and support their long-term success,” Andrew Hedin, partner at Bessemer, said in a prepared statement. “As healthcare investors, we saw the ever-changing complexity and growing global regulatory pressures that medtech companies are facing. This industry can no longer rely on error-prone antiquated processes and legacy technologies that put product sales at risk. Rimsys is transforming a sector that has been underserved by new technology with their best-in-class, scalable platform that meets the needs of medtech companies of all sizes.”
Other participants in the funding round, one of the region's largest in recent months, included Allos Ventures, Private Opportunities and Pittsburgh-based seed stage investor Innovation Works.
Rimsys, which counts health care giants Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) and Siemens Healthineers AG among its customers, plans to use the funding to grow its product offerings as well as its geographic footprint. The North Side company specializes in centralizing new and changing regulations for medical technology companies around the world through its proprietary software to ensure companies and their products remain in compliance.
It currently employs 30 full-time workers and 30 contractors but according to Gianoutsos, those numbers will double, if not triple as a result of the investment.
"It allows us to, one, hire resources to support our enterprise-level customers," Gianoutsos said. "But then it also allows us to further expand our reach into different global markets that we haven't really particularly touched yet such as Australia, Japan, Southeast Asia, even China for that matter, and then in South America as well…and then thirdly, it really allows us to have the full scope of our product come to fruition."
A Pittsburgh native, Gianoutsos also said it's crucial that the growth the company is looking to take on following the investment will be one that's seen in the region, too.
"I've been in Pittsburgh my whole life and plan to stay here and grow this business. I've always wanted to grow the business and support the tech scene in Pittsburgh itself," Gianoutsos said. "Really growing that workforce, concentrating here, obviously in Pittsburgh, and obviously we're remote now as everybody is, so we're not geographically constrained either, but certainly want to continue hiring as much as we can in the Pittsburgh region and support the local life here."
As part of the announcement, Rimsys appointed industry veterans Adam Price and Christine Robertson to its executive team. It also added Bessemer Partner Andrew Hedin and Pendo Co-Founder Eric Boduch to its board of directors.
