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The round brings One’s total raised since its January 2019 inception to $26 million. The startup, which is based in San Francisco and Sacramento, previously raised $9 million from its chairman and co-founder .

We’ve been covering the rise of neobanks globally. Just last week, for example, I wrote about , a New York-based digital bank aimed at small and medium businesses (SMBs), raising a $21 million Series A.

This news caught my attention for a couple of reasons. For one, One’s co-founders are serial entrepreneurs with deep industry experience. Former CEO and founding CEO serves as One’s chairman. who co-founded PushPoint (which was ), is CEO of One.

I’m also intrigued by the company’s emphasis on the middle class. To be clear, there are other digital banks focused on this demographic (, which neared unicorn status last year with a $100 million Series C, being a prime example). But there’s no doubt that as the country faces a potential recession fueled by the coronavirus pandemic, the middle class will be among the hardest hit.

The company told me: “We are focused on middle-income families across the US. This includes traditional families, but also single partners, people who support parents, kids and other family members; roommates and more.”

I also find it interesting that Obvious Ventures, an impact investor, put money in the round. One, which today said it is opening up early access to its private beta, also claims to be the first digital banking service to integrate credit with the goal of “making it seamless to save, spend and borrow money.” The thought behind that is that in the current financial system, people’s money is broken up into siloes, according to Hamilton.

“Most people have a balance in their checking account that earns nothing and outstanding debt on their credit card that costs too much,” he said in a written statement. “One is designed to maximize a family’s hard-earned paycheck by unifying saving, spending and borrowing into one account. When this money is being managed from one place, people save more, are charged less and gain control.”

To Harris, One addresses a gap in the banking industry.

“Traditional banks cater mostly to affluent customers and new digital banks target younger individuals with simpler financial needs,” Harris said in a written statement. “Middle-class American families are being left out.”

One is planning for a public launch this summer, and its new capital will help it scale toward that goal. The company currently has 40 employees.

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According to the company, the annual number of operating clinical trial sites–often research stations or hospitals–per million people is 250 times higher in the United States versus low-income countries. Plus, wealthier patients are almost twice as likely to be referred versus non-wealthy patients.

To address the gap, Inato says it’s unlocking previously unengaged research sites and connecting them to patients available for clinical trials. And by partnering with pharmaceutical companies, Inato says it can help treatment get into the hands of more patients and eventually to the general public.

Inato is bringing concentration of clinical trial access away from the richest and the biggest, and claiming it is keeping the merit of clinical trials at the forefront. In the simplest terms, Inato is freeing up research sites and connecting patients available for clinical trials. The company estimates “there are thousands of sites around the world that are fully capable of recruiting patients but are currently not taking part in the research process,” according to , co-founder and CEO.

Double-clicking into a common strategy employed by startups like , and , Inato is unlocking previously existing land for commercial use. And Obvious Ventures admits it, too: “There is a long history of manual, inefficient marketplaces being streamlined by technology – clinical trials is next, and may be the most important category of them all,” , managing director at the firm, said in a release.

The company claims more than 3,500 doctors across 75 countries have used it to offer treatment to patients. As for competitors, Davarpanah said the biggest one is “the status quo.”

“Ultimately, we all benefit sooner from innovative therapies,” Davarpanah told Crunchbase News. “The status quo is CROs and pharma companies going back to the same sites despite poor performance.”

With the new funding, he said, Inato will expand its network of clinicians, and currently exists in 80 countries so far. Also, while the company is based in France, its recently opened New York office will focus on its U.S. presence.

In order to make money, Inato sells services to pharmaceutical manufacturers who not-so-surprisingly want to get their products tested.

Finally, Inato added it is “very close to being profitable, which is quite rare for a company at our stage.”

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