Former Stanford Medicine AI researchers reimagine clinical trials with smarter participant engagement, streamlined site operations, and actionable insights to accelerate new treatments.
SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Grove AI, a next-generation clinical trial management and intelligence company, today announced a $4.9 million seed fundraise led by A*, with participation from Afore Capital, LifeX Ventures, Pear VC, Upfront Ventures, and industry-leading angels. This investment will allow Grove to continue scaling its team and product to redefine clinical trials from siloed operations into participant-centered ecosystems driven by real-time data.
Despite their vital role in advancing medicine, clinical trials face fragmented communication, slow feedback loops, and inefficient workflows. These challenges frustrate participants, overwhelm site staff, and cost pharmaceutical companies up to $8 million per day in delays. Grove tackles these barriers by streamlining participant qualification, enhancing engagement and retention, and delivering actionable insights for smarter, faster trials.
“Clinical trials should be more than bureaucratic hurdles—they should empower participants and accelerate transformative therapies,” said Tran Le, CEO and co-founder of Grove. Inspired by personal experiences enrolling in clinical trials, Le and co-founder Sohit Gatiganti dedicated hundreds of hours to visiting sites, shadowing staff, and listening to participants to engineer a better solution. “Our AI-powered participant relationship management (PRM) platform sets a new standard in clinical trials, ensuring every participant feels supported through consistent, high-quality, and personalized interactions,” added Gatiganti.
Over the past year, Grove’s industry-compliant platform has supported tens of thousands of participants across diverse therapeutic areas, achieving a 97% participant satisfaction rate. By seamlessly integrating with existing workflows, the platform delivers actionable insights that optimize trial operations, accelerate time-to-first visit, and enhance participant diversity. At the core is Grace, a multilingual, 24/7 AI clinical research agent. Grace prescreens participants, schedules appointments, and coordinates logistics and follow-ups. By powering a dynamic feedback loop, Grace enables research teams to adapt rapidly, reduce staff burnout, and conduct trials with unparalleled efficiency and precision.
“In just two months of partnering with Grove, we transformed how our teams operate and engage with participants,” said Sean Stanton, co-founder of K2 Medical Research. “We prescreened and booked hundreds of participants for our Alzheimer’s and vaccine trials, freed our staff of thousands of hours of repetitive work, and gained insights that boosted our efficiency and scale. We look forward to expanding our partnership with Grove to launch more sites and trials at scale.”
“As clinical trials become increasingly complex, the industry requires solutions that not only interpret data but also deliver actionable insights and tangible results,” said Gautam Gupta, co-founder and general partner at A*. “Grove equips life science leaders with the tools to accelerate breakthroughs and drive greater efficiency.”
Additional investors include angel backers with deep sector expertise, such as Ajit Baid (former Head of Global Asset at UCB), Chloe Yoo (Director at ICON), Phuc Truong (co-founder of CRIO), Till Pieper (former Google Cloud AI lead), among others.
Grove will be at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference from January 13–16, 2025 in San Francisco. To learn more about Grove, visit grovetrials.com. Grove is also hiring across its engineering and operations teams. Those interested in joining their mission to transform clinical trials can visit grovetrials.com/team.
About Grove AI
Grove AI revolutionizes clinical trials with its AI-powered participant relationship management (PRM) platform, delivering actionable insights and accelerating critical trial processes. Grove empowers research organizations to streamline operations, engage participants, and accelerate life-saving therapies. With Grove, clinical trials shift from cumbersome, manual workflows to adaptive, data-driven ecosystems that operate at the speed of innovation—bringing life-saving treatments to patients faster than ever. To learn more about Grove’s mission to transform clinical trials visit grovetrials.com.
Contacts
MEDIA CONTACT
Ali Moore
ali@cmand.co
