NextBio takes $8M for scientific search engine

NextBio, a search engine that scours the net specifically for information related to the life sciences, has raised $8 million in a third round of funding from Newbury Ventures. Targeted at researchers, the Cupertino, Calif. based service, provides mostly journal articles, scientific news, and updates on clinical trials. It plans to use the new financing to expand internationally and continue developing its technology. And because it is packaged as a software-as-a-service, it is easy to deploy and systems large and small.

The company has partnered with Johnson & Johnson, Eli Lilly and Stanford University to provide paid enterprise versions of its specialized search capabilities to their web sites. So far, its product combs both public and proprietary data. It has raised $16.1 million to date, all from Newbury.

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