Applied XL, a real-time information company tracking disruptions to the health of people, places, and the planet, today announced it had raised $3.5 million in seed funding led by Hearst Ventures with the participation of the Boston Globe Media Partners and STAT, which are owned by the Henry family. The latest round brings Applied XL’s total funds raised to date to $5 million in the last 12 months.

Applied XL uses machine learning to monitor dozens of industry databases and make sense of disparate data streams, surfacing signals before they become news. Rather than providing static snapshots and summaries of existing information, the system dynamically categorizes events, ranks them, and assigns proprietary labels that provide immediate insight into when and why important changes occur. The company will use the new funding to scale its first vertical which serves pharma and biotech professionals.

Applied XL was launched in early 2020 by Wall Street Journal computational journalists through the Newlab Venture Studio, which builds new businesses with seasoned founders and domain experts, leveraging hardware, biotech and software to positively impact the material world. 

“Newlab is a foundational partner that advises us on crucial strategic decisions related to everything from funding to recruitment and growth. Newlab has also provided us with a stellar network and critical support in business operations, finance and HR, which in turn have allowed us to be fully focused on product development. These contributions have enabled us to scale the company much faster than we otherwise could have,” said Francesco Marconi, co-founder & CEO of Applied XL.

Applied XL was developed in response to what its founders describe as an “information crisis”—the difficulty in distinguishing between relevant and irrelevant data—with the mission of anticipating disruptions to the health of people, places and the planet.

“From our first discussions, Francesco and Erin were committed to a huge vision to change how the world relates to information. We’re thrilled to have provided them with the foundational funding and strategic guidance they needed to bring this vision to life” said Dan Connell, Senior Director, Venture Studio Strategy and Operations at Newlab. 

Newlab advances technologies that support the health of the planet. Newlab acts as a facilitator, connector, and translator for its community of experts and innovators, helping to build, test, and scale world-changing ideas through investment, venture building, and structured collaboration with industry and government partners.

“We don’t shy away from supporting founders with ambitious plans. We recognize that it's incredibly hard to build new deep tech companies, and something you can’t do alone. With our venture building capabilities, we support stellar founders like Francesco and Erin to tackle complex challenges as part of an engaged community. It has been a pleasure working with this team from day one and a privilege to contribute to their success,” said Connell.

Applied XL leverages emerging techniques that have the potential to revolutionize the way information is gathered, disseminated, and consumed—separating signals from noise and providing decision makers with real time information they need before it becomes news.

“As a team of computational journalists, data scientists, and engineers building next generation information systems, it’s important for us to be exposed to new thinking and innovation from domains that might not appear to overlap with our own. It enables us to think outside of our box, and that’s a major benefit of being part of Newlab’s community of like minded entrepreneurs and builders,” said Erin Riglin, co-founder and CTO of Applied XL.