- Bios Life has raised $25 million in seed funding, with Redmile, Vsquared Ventures, and Kindred Capital leading the round.
- The company, started by former BioNTech executives, is developing ongoing “digital twin” cancer risk models.
- Bios Life’s platform is backed by a multi-year partnership with Tempus and includes commercial rights to BioNTech-InstaDeep’s genomics AI.
Cancer screening has not changed much in the last two or three decades, according to Kevin Oeffinger, director of the Duke Cancer Institute’s Centre for Onco-Primary Care.
“The vast majority of individuals at elevated risk of cancer are not screened according to standard-of-care guidelines, and one out of every five newly diagnosed cancers in the US is found in cancer survivors,” he said.
To tackle this gap, Boston-based healthtech Bios Life emerged stealth, announcing $25 million in seed funding and a multi-year partnership with Tempus, a Chicago company focused on AI-driven precision medicine.
Redmile, Vsquared Ventures, and Kindred Capital led the round, joined by healthcare and technology investors from the US and Europe. This is Bios Life’s first outside funding, and the company has not shared its valuation.
“Tens of millions of high-risk individuals and cancer survivors lack access to cutting-edge care which is tailored to their particular needs and their unique biology. Bios Life is building a novel technology portfolio and specialised care delivery model to uniquely serve these individuals at a level that has not been possible until now,” said Ryan Richardson, Bios Life’s co-founder and CEO.
A digital twin instead of one-off scans
The health tech was co-founded by Richardson, who was BioNTech’s chief strategy officer and served on InstaDeep’s board after BioNTech acquired it in 2023. Zach Taylor, a former BioNTech senior vice president, is chief operating and business officer. Dr. Logan Frank, who led breast radiology at the University of Missouri, is chief medical officer.
The team also includes Geoff Hyde, formerly of One Medical and Galileo, as head of product and engineering, and Dr Thomas Pierrot, who led InstaDeep’s genomics AI research, as head of AI.
Bios Life focuses on two overlapping groups that often lack support: cancer survivors and people with higher genetic risk, together making up over 40 million Americans. The company said more than 40% of people will get cancer in their lifetime, and over 30% are diagnosed at stage 3 or 4.
Instead of relying on occasional scans, Bios Life combines clinical, lab, and genetic data to build a constantly updated “digital twin” of each patient’s risk. Care is provided through a virtual clinic with licensed teams working alongside cancer centres. For example, a breast cancer survivor with a BRCA gene would get monitoring that changes as new lab or lifestyle data comes in, rather than waiting for the next mammogram.
The market is crowded. Color Health, valued at $4.6 billion in 2021, runs a virtual cancer clinic and works with OpenAI on a screening tool for doctors. Other companies in the space include Ezra, which raised $21 million in 2024 for full-body MRI-based cancer detection; Perci Health, a UK platform for cancer survivors; and Neko Health, Daniel Ek’s preventive scanning startup valued at $1.8 billion.
Most of these companies offer detection tools or screening that fit into current care systems. Bios Life, however, wants to combine risk modelling and patient management into a single care model.
BioNTech’s genomics technology and Tempus data partnership
Bios Life owns commercial rights to Nucleotide Transformer, a genomics foundation model created by BioNTech-InstaDeep that is one of the most downloaded genomics AI models worldwide. This model can read genomic signals down to a single nucleotide.
Bios Life has also partnered with Tempus for several years to train and test its predictive models using anonymous oncology data, and will integrate genetic screening through Ambry Genetics, a Tempus company.
“By bringing together Tempus’ multi-modal data platform, Ambry’s expertise in hereditary genetics, and Bios Life’s virtual-first care model, we can move beyond episodic screening toward a more continuous understanding of risk,” said Ryan Fukushima, CEO of Data and Apps at Tempus.
Bios Life’s US platform will launch in the second half of 2026, with a waitlist currently open. It remains to be seen whether patients will maintain continuous virtual surveillance or revert to the episodic patterns the company aims to address.
