Tact.ai, the customer engagement company for life sciences, today announced a new round of equity financing totaling $33 million that included investments from Novartis (dRx Capital), Lilly and McKesson Ventures. Existing investors including Microsoft’sM12 and Salesforce Ventures also participated in the round, bringing the company’s total funding to $88 million. These investments highlight the ever-growing demand for hybrid engagement, recognizing how Tact helps the life sciences industry — including pharmaceutical, medical device and biotech companies— to work more effectively with healthcare professionals (HCPs) and healthcare organizations.
Over the past 18 months of the global pandemic, navigating change and uncertainty for customers has been a top priority for the life sciences industry. Customer preferences have been altered significantly. Accenture noted that 87 percent of HCPs wanted either all virtual or a mix of virtual and in-person meetings, even after the pandemic ends. Gartner® Hype Cycle ™ for Life Science Commercial Operations, 2021 report (Gartner subscription is required to access these report) identified the same pattern, stating, “life sciences organizations are accelerating the shift toward a customer-centric engagement strategy by enabling new virtual and digital interaction channels in addition to their face-to-face sales rep interactions.”[1]
Ushering in the Hybrid Era
While some markets have experienced a post-COVID shift toward a 50/50 split between face-to-face and digital interactions, delivering individualized experiences remains a challenge. HCPs say pharmaceutical field teams “lack understanding of their specific needs and expectations.” This realization has led companies to prioritize platforms that can not only support rep, medical science liaison and key account manager in-person and virtual meetings, but also deliver a personalized journey across all channels and relevant customer insights and scientific content.
“Our technology connects physicians and patients to the pharmaceutical ecosystem needed to help improve outcomes,” said Chuck Ganapathi, Founder and CEO of Tact.ai. “As these value-based conversations have shifted to be both in-person and virtual, life sciences organizations need a better way to deliver this hybrid experience. We’re very pleased to work with Novartis, Lilly and McKesson Ventures on making customer engagement more effective and human-friendly.”
Human-friendly, Omni-channel and AI-powered Platform Trusted by Life Science Industry Leaders
Tact’s customer engagement platform is designed for companies to take a holistic, outcome-centric approach to transforming how they engage customers across channels: face-to-face, phone, email, video, chat, and self-service. The platform innovations in mobile, artificial intelligence (AI) and user experience – which have been awarded six patents – enable field teams to be more productive and effective, while empowering customers to engage when and how they want to. By integrating multiple systems of record like CRM, email, calendar, next-best-action engines and 3rd party data into a unified system of engagement, Tact helps life science companies deliver personalization at scale while diversifying their technology stack with best-in-class tools.
“Our Commercial and Medical teams at Novartis have been collaborating with Tact over the last two years to transform our field force and customer experience globally,” said Rana Lonnen, Managing Director at dRx Capital, the Novartis Data and Digital Health Venture Fund.“Tact.ai aligns with our ambition to reimagine customer engagement for the New Normal.”
“As healthcare organizations prioritize interactions that improve patient outcomes, the opportunity to bring to market a next generation engagement platform for biopharma has emerged,” said Carrie Williams, Partner at McKesson Ventures, the investment fund of McKesson. “Tact.ai supports our thesis that commercial strategies for biopharma should account for both field force and prescriber needs, ensuring the right data is leveraged at the right time to enable the best decisions and support for patients.”
