The most critical phase of a clinical trial is also one of the most stubbornly analog. Before a single patient can be enrolled, a mountain of interdependent documents must be drafted, reviewed, and aligned. A single error in a protocol or a misaligned submission can cost sponsors months and millions. For a new patient population waiting for a trial to open, that delay is measured in hope.
London-based Cori Clinical, founded in 2025, is betting that an AI platform built specifically for this pre-enrollment gauntlet can compress that timeline. The startup is not trying to discover drugs or recruit patients. Instead, it is targeting the administrative and regulatory workflows that connect clinical decisions, documents, and costs from trial design through to First Patient In (FPI) [Cori Clinical, retrieved 2026]. The goal is to create a connected workspace that reduces errors and accelerates trial setup while preserving the human judgment and compliance rigor that regulators demand.
A Wedge in the Document Maze
Cori's initial focus is narrow and surgical. The platform is designed to manage the interconnected web of documents required to get a trial off the ground: protocols, investigator brochures, regulatory submissions, and budgets. It reviews each document against regulatory, quality, and patient-centric compliance rules to flag alignment gaps and track dependencies [Cori Clinical, retrieved 2026].
The core proposition is consistency and coherence. By applying regulatory logic and tracking how changes in one document affect others, the platform aims to prevent the costly misalignments that often surface late in the submission process. It automates administrative workflows but is built to keep clinical and regulatory teams in control, a necessary concession for adoption in a highly regulated field [Cori Clinical, retrieved 2026]. The target buyers are the sponsors and contract research organizations (CROs) who bear the burden and cost of this complex documentation phase.
A Team Forged in Pharma and AI
The founders bring a blend of deep clinical AI product experience and operational scale. CEO Jorn Jansen Schoonhoven spent seven years building AI products at Amazon and IBM before moving to Octopus Ventures to invest in AI startups [Cori Clinical, retrieved 2026]. CTO Patricio Fernandez Weisson was previously Data Science Director at Evinova, AstraZeneca's health-tech unit, and Lead Data Scientist at Sanofi, giving him five years of focused experience developing AI for pharma and clinical trials [Cori Clinical, retrieved 2026].
This technical leadership is bolstered by Chief Clinical Officer Emma Ogburn, who brings over 20 years of hands-on experience running global trials across multiple phases and therapeutic areas [Cori Clinical, retrieved 2026]. The company has also added strategic advisors like Laurent Schockmel, formerly of patient recruitment platform Antidote, signaling an understanding that trial startup is ultimately in service of enrollment [Cori Clinical, retrieved 2026].
| Role | Name | Key Prior Experience |
|---|---|---|
| Co-Founder & CEO | Jorn Jansen Schoonhoven | AI product leadership (Amazon, IBM); AI investing (Octopus Ventures) |
| Co-Founder & CTO | Patricio Fernandez Weisson | Data Science Director (Evinova/AstraZeneca); Lead Data Scientist (Sanofi) |
| Chief Clinical Officer | Emma Ogburn, PhD | 20+ years in global clinical operations across industry and academia |
| Strategic Advisor | Laurent Schockmel | Formerly of patient recruitment platform Antidote |
Early Traction and a Cautious Capital Start
Cori Clinical is in its earliest stages. The company lists Heartfelt Capital as an investor, and a third-party profile suggests an investment range of $108,000 to $432,000, though no official round details or valuation have been publicly disclosed [FundraisingFox]. The company's public materials state it is already working with leading biotechs and CROs, though it has not named specific customers [Cori Clinical, retrieved 2026]. A hiring push is underway, with a Senior AI Engineer role posted as recently as July 2026, indicating active product development [Breega, July 2026].
The company has assembled a notable group of angel investors and advisors from the health-tech and AI worlds, including Maarten Alblas (founder of DataSnipper), Ben Peters (founder of Five AI and Cogna), and Tim Shi (founder of Cresta and Early Research at OpenAI) [Cori Clinical, retrieved 2026]. This network provides credibility and potential early access to the complex enterprise sales cycles of its target market.
The Uphill Climb for a New Workflow
The bet Cori is making is substantial, and the path is lined with credible challenges. The clinical trial operations software space is not empty; established players like Veeva Systems dominate the clinical data and content management landscape with deeply embedded platforms. Furthermore, large CROs and pharma companies often have legacy systems and entrenched processes that are difficult to displace. Cori's success hinges on proving its AI-driven connective tissue delivers tangible time and cost savings significant enough to justify changing a workflow.
The company's most plausible answer lies in its focused wedge and team composition. By avoiding the broader clinical trial management system (CTMS) or electronic data capture (EDC) markets and zeroing in on the specific pain of trial startup, it aims to be a best-in-class point solution. The deep pharma AI experience of its CTO and the operational clinical expertise of its CCO are assets designed to build a product that speaks the language of regulators and sponsors, not just technologists.
What to Watch in the Next Twelve Months
For a company at this stage, the coming year will be about moving from private development to public proof. Key milestones will be the announcement of its first named, paying customer,likely a biotech or small CRO,and the publication of any case studies quantifying time or error reduction. Given its seed-stage funding profile, another capital raise within the next 12 to 18 months is a near certainty, and the metrics it can present to investors will be decisive.
The ultimate test for any tool in this space is whether it gets trials open faster for the patients waiting for them. For a patient with a progressive condition like ALS or a rare cancer, the standard of care today involves a protracted wait as sponsors navigate a manual, document-heavy process. Each week of delay is a week of disease progression without access to a potential new therapy. Cori Clinical's ambition is to shrink that waiting period by bringing coherence to the chaotic paperwork that stands between a protocol and a patient. That is a humane goal, and one that could find a willing market if the technology delivers on its promise of intelligent alignment.
Sources
- [Cori Clinical, retrieved 2026] AI for clinical trials · Cori Clinical | https://www.cori-clinical.com/
- [Cori Clinical, September 2025] Announcing Cori Clinical | https://www.cori-clinical.com/launchingcori
- [Cori Clinical, retrieved 2026] ABOUT | Cori-Clinical | https://www.cori-clinical.com/about
- [FundraisingFox] Cori Clinical company profile | https://fundraisingfox.com/companies/cori-clinical
- [Breega, July 2026] Senior AI Engineer, Cori | https://jobs.breega.com/jobs/8151224-senior-ai-engineer-cori
- [Cori Clinical, retrieved 2026] Introducing Strategic Advisor: Laurent Schockmel | https://www.cori-clinical.com/blog/anouncing_laurent