Summary List PlacementArtificial: software for wet labs Recommended by: Chris Picardo, Madrona Venture Group Relationship: Picardo does not have a financial interest in Artificial. Total funding: $21.5 million What it does: Artificial sells software designed to help lab researchers automate operations, whether it's assigning robotic tasks or gathering data and uploading it into the cloud. It hopes to increase researchers' productivity, slash operational costs, and seamlessly record data. Artificial's flagship product, aLab Suite, also lets researchers whip up virtual models of their labs called "digital twins."