Clear Labs
Clear Labs is a San Carlos-based biotechnology company that builds fully automated next-generation sequencing platforms for food safety testing, infectious disease surveillance, and oncology research, serving public health laboratories, food manufacturers, and clinical microbiology laboratories.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2014
- HeadquartersSan Carlos, United States
- Headcount51–100
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Clear Labs does
Clear Labs is a San Carlos, California-based biotechnology company founded in 2014 by Sasan Amini (PhD, Princeton) that builds fully automated next-generation sequencing (NGS) platforms integrating liquid handling, library preparation, sequencing, and bioinformatics into a single turnkey system. The company's technology combines short-read Illumina sequencing-by-synthesis and long-read Oxford Nanopore technologies, supported by what the company describes as the world's largest molecular food database. Its product portfolio is organized into three lines: Clear Safety for food safety pathogen testing (Listeria and Salmonella with AOAC and USDA NPIP certifications), Clear Ix for infectious disease research and microbial surveillance (including SARS-CoV-2 wastewater monitoring, Mycobacterium detection, and Deeplex Myc-TB), and Clear Dx for oncology research workflows including solid tumor sequencing, liquid biopsy, and fusion detection.
The company generates revenue through sale or lease of NGS instruments, recurring consumables (reagents and kits), service contracts, and technology licensing. Go-to-market is enterprise sales-led with distribution partnerships extending reach through Illumina and Oxford Nanopore channels. Target customers span four primary verticals: food manufacturers and processors, public health laboratories, clinical microbiology laboratories, and oncology research institutions. Notable accounts include Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, Tyson Foods, Aviagen, Labcorp, Nebraska and Florida public health laboratories, and alignment with CDC PulseNet reporting standards.
Clear Labs has raised approximately $155.5M across eight disclosed funding rounds from 2014 through January 2025, with institutional backing from Menlo Ventures, Khosla Ventures, GV, Counterpoint Global, T. Rowe Price, and strategic investment from Tyson Ventures. Regulatory milestones include FDA Emergency Use Authorization for SARS-CoV-2 (2020), AOAC certifications for both Salmonella (2018) and Listeria (2019), and USDA NPIP approval for poultry Salmonella testing (2021). The company employs 51-100 people and is actively expanding internationally into Europe and Latin America while broadening its oncology footprint through partnerships with Labcorp and Pillar Biosciences announced in November 2025.
Clear Labs firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Clear Labs
- Legal name
- Clear Labs, Inc.
- Website
- https://clearlabs.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2014
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 51–100 employees
- Short description
- Clear Labs is a San Carlos-based biotechnology company that builds fully automated next-generation sequencing platforms for food safety testing, infectious disease surveillance, and oncology research, serving public health laboratories, food manufacturers, and clinical microbiology laboratories.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Clear Labs industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Automated Genomics Sequencing Platforms
- NAICS
- Analytical Laboratory Instrument Manufacturing (334516), In-Vitro Diagnostic Substance Manufacturing (325413)
- SIC
- Laboratory Analytical Instruments (3826), Laboratory Apparatus & Furniture (3821)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Genomics & Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) Services (HLAGANAA)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Laboratory Automation, Sample Prep & Liquid Handling (IVD Lab Diagnostics) (HLAHAAAN), Molecular & Genetic Testing (PCR/NGS/qPCR) (HLAGADAF), Lab Analytics, Utilization Management & Operational Intelligence (HLACAMAK)
Keywords
Where Clear Labs is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- San Carlos
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
Clear Labs business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Supply Chain, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure
Revenue model
- NGS Platform Sales and Service: Clear Labs generates revenue through the sale and service of its automated NGS platforms including Clear Dx, Clear Ix, and Clear Safety systems. Revenue comes from instrument sales, consumables (reagents, kits), and service contracts for maintenance and support. The company offers both purchase and lease arrangements for its platforms.
- Testing Services and Consumables: Ongoing revenue from consumables used with the NGS platforms for pathogen detection, serotyping, and genomic surveillance applications. Customers include food safety labs, public health laboratories, and clinical microbiology labs that run routine tests.
- Technology Licensing and Partnerships: Revenue derived from licensing technology to partners including Labcorp for oncology workflows and distribution agreements with Illumina and Oxford Nanopore for sequencing technology integration.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Other | Multi-year contract | Enterprise platform sale with flexible arrangements |
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels4 records
Marketing channels6 records
Clear Labs product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Clear Labs builds fully automated next-generation sequencing (NGS) platforms combining liquid handling, library preparation, sequencing, and bioinformatics into a single integrated system. The company sells three main product lines—Clear Dx for oncology research, Clear Ix for infectious disease research, and Clear Safety for food safety testing—to food manufacturers, public health laboratories, clinical microbiology labs, and oncology research institutions.
Product overview
Clear Labs offers a portfolio of fully automated next-generation sequencing (NGS) platforms organized into three main product lines: Clear Dx™ for clinical oncology research, Clear Ix™ for infectious disease research, and Clear Safety™ for food safety testing. The Clear Dx™ platform serves as the core clinical product supporting oncology workflows including solid tumor sequencing, liquid biopsy, and fusion detection, with extensions into microbial surveillance and targeted NGS assays. Clear Ix™ provides automated NGS capabilities for infectious disease applications including pathogen identification, TB detection, and SARS-CoV-2 surveillance. Clear Safety™ delivers food safety pathogen detection using NGS for Listeria and Salmonella testing with environmental mapping. All platforms feature walkaway automation reducing hands-on time to under 45 minutes with single human touchpoints, integrated bioinformatics, and cloud connectivity for data management.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Clear Dx: Automated genomic solutions for oncology research and clinical applications
- Clear Ix
- Clear Safety
Products and services
- Clear Dx™ Automated next-generation sequencing (NGS) platform designed for oncology research workflows including solid tumor sequencing, liquid biopsy applications, and fusion detection assays. Automates library preparation and sequencing setup, reducing hands-on time while improving consistency and reproducibility across complex genomic assays. Targets cancer research laboratories and diagnostic companies.
- Clear Ix™ Automated NGS platform for infectious disease and microbial genomics research. Streamlines pathogen characterization and genomic surveillance workflows including targeted 16S/ITS sequencing, Mycobacterium species detection, whole genome sequencing of bacterial/fungal/viral targets, and SARS-CoV-2 sequencing from clinical specimens and wastewater. Targets public health laboratories and clinical microbiology labs.
- Clear Safety™ NGS-based food safety testing platform for routine pathogen detection and surveillance. Provides Listeria and Salmonella testing with deep molecular characterization, serotyping, persistence monitoring, and environmental mapping capabilities for food safety environmental monitoring and quality assurance. Targets food manufacturers and processors.
- Clear Dx™ Microbial Surveillance WGS Fully-automated, end-to-end whole genome sequencing (WGS) solution for bacterial and fungal isolates. Supports flexible workflow options with or without nucleic acid extraction for outbreak investigation and pathogen surveillance. Reduces turnaround time from 44-47 hours to 28 hours and achieves 99% concordance with manual methods.
- Clear Dx™ Microbial ID tNGS Targeted next-generation sequencing (tNGS) assay workflow for rapid detection of multiple bacteria and/or fungi that are difficult to culture. Enables next-day identification of bacterial and fungal pathogens from sterile site specimens for clinical microbiology laboratories.
- Clear Ix™ Deeplex® Myc-TB Automated targeted sequencing solution for rapid characterization of Mycobacterium DNA extracts from isolates or sputum, enabling quick identification of over 150 Mycobacterium species and MTB drug resistance mutations. Targets public health and clinical laboratories conducting TB diagnostics.
- Clear Dx™ FlexPro: Wastewater (SARS-CoV-2)
Quantifiable outcome
- Turnaround time reduced from 4-5 days (traditional) to 24 hours
- +6 more outcomes
Companies that use Clear Labs
Customer profileNamed customers10 records
Segments4 records
Ideal customer profiles4 records
Clear Labs technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration3 records
AI capability4 records
Feature9 records
Clear Labs partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Ten partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.
- LabcorpcoreClear Labs announced collaboration with Labcorp to develop streamlined, oncology-focused NGS workflows. The partnership extends Clear Labs' automation technology beyond infectious diseases into scalable, in-house genomic testing for oncology, marking a significant strategic expansion into clinical diagnostics.
- Pillar BiosciencescoreClear Labs unveiled automated workflow featuring Pillar Biosciences' SLIMamp® chemistry on the Clear Dx™ platform at AMP 2025. The workflow will be available for Pillar's oncoReveal® assays, enhancing oncology research with streamlined automation starting November 2025.
- The Acheson GroupminorJoint webinar addressing automation of NGS and regulatory landscape for food safety testing, featuring Clear Labs' Director of Product Management and TAG's COO & EVP of Regulatory & Scientific Affairs.
- IlluminacoreClear Labs inked distribution partnership with Illumina to include short-read sequencing-by-synthesis (SBS) technology in its fully integrated platform, expanding the utility of the Clear Dx platform to other sequencing applications.
- Oxford Nanopore TechnologiescoreNorth American distribution agreement where Clear Labs implements ONT's long-read GridION sequencing technology into a fully automated, highly rapid NGS platform for food safety testing applications.
- AOAC InternationalminorClear Labs holds AOAC certification for its Salmonella and Listeria testing methods, demonstrating compliance with international standards for food testing accuracy.
- American Society for Microbiology (ASM)minorClear Labs participates in ASM Corporate Council and exhibits at ASM Microbe conferences, contributing to the microbiology professional community.
- Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL)minorClear Labs is a sustaining member of APHL and presents at annual conferences, supporting public health laboratory innovation.
- Association for Molecular Pathology (AMP)minorClear Labs showcases oncology solutions at AMP Annual Meeting and presents scientific posters on NGS applications.
- International Association for Food Protection (IAFP)minorClear Labs presents scientific posters at IAFP Annual Meeting and contributes to food safety professional community.
Scale indicators8 records
Recent moves7 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Clear Labs competitors and assessment
Company assessmentBroad incumbents
- bioMérieux: Global leader in in vitro diagnostics and microbial testing, with strong food pathogen detection portfolio including BioFire molecular diagnostics. Comparable as an incumbent in clinical microbiology and industrial food safety testing that Clear Labs competes with for pathogen detection market share.
- QIAGEN: Global molecular diagnostics and sample preparation technology provider serving food safety, clinical diagnostics, and research markets. Comparable in providing integrated sample-to-result workflows for pathogen detection and oncology testing.
- Illumina: Dominant NGS sequencing technology provider whose SBS chemistry is integrated into Clear Labs' Clear Dx platform. Also a distribution partner. Comparable as the foundational sequencing technology Clear Labs builds upon and competes with for clinical NGS workflows.
- Hologic: Major molecular diagnostics company with Panther system and extensive women's health/infection testing menu. Comparable as a clinical diagnostics incumbent offering automated molecular testing platforms to hospital and reference lab customers.
- Bio-Rad Laboratories: Major life science instrumentation company offering droplet digital PCR, food safety testing kits, and laboratory automation solutions. Comparable as an incumbent providing pathogen detection and lab workflow automation to clinical and food safety markets.
- Thermo Fisher Scientific: Global life sciences giant offering NGS instruments (Ion Torrent), qPCR, laboratory automation, and clinical diagnostics. Comparable as a broad incumbent providing end-to-end genomics workflows including instruments, reagents, and informatics across all Clear Labs' target markets.
Direct peers
- Hamilton Company: Leading manufacturer of liquid handling robots, automated workstations, and laboratory automation solutions. Directly comparable as a provider of walkaway automation that Clear Labs' NGS platform competes against in lab workflow automation.
- Oxford Nanopore Technologies: Long-read sequencing technology provider and Clear Labs distribution partner for GridION. Directly comparable as both a technology supplier and competitor offering sequencing-based pathogen detection solutions in food safety and clinical research.
- Neogen (3M Food Safety): Major food safety testing provider following 3M Food Safety divestiture, offering pathogen detection kits and instruments for Listeria, Salmonella, and other foodborne pathogens. Directly comparable as the dominant incumbent in the food safety pathogen testing market that Clear Safety competes against.
Emerging players
- Opentrons: Emerging lab automation provider offering affordable pipetting robots and automated NGS library prep workstations. Comparable as a competing next-generation lab automation platform targeting genomics workflows in research and clinical labs.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights8 records
Customer concentration
Clear Labs social profiles
Digital presenceClear Labs compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance4 records
Clear Labs financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Clear Labs leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles8 records
Clear Labs funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds8 records
Investors24 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Clear Labs M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Clear Labs
What does Clear Labs do?
Clear Labs builds fully automated next-generation sequencing (NGS) platforms combining liquid handling, library preparation, sequencing, and bioinformatics into a single integrated system. The company sells three main product lines—Clear Dx for oncology research, Clear Ix for infectious disease research, and Clear Safety for food safety testing—to food manufacturers, public health laboratories, clinical microbiology labs, and oncology research institutions.
Is Clear Labs a public or private company?
Clear Labs is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was Clear Labs founded?
Clear Labs was founded in 2014. It employs 51 to 100 people.
Where is Clear Labs based?
Clear Labs is headquartered in San Carlos, United States, in the North America region.
How does Clear Labs make money?
Three revenue lines are on record. NGS Platform Sales and Service is the primary driver. The others are testing Services and Consumables and technology Licensing and Partnerships.
Who are Clear Labs's main competitors?
Broad incumbents on record are bioMérieux, QIAGEN, Illumina, Hologic, Bio-Rad Laboratories and Thermo Fisher Scientific. Direct peers are Hamilton Company, Oxford Nanopore Technologies and Neogen (3M Food Safety). Opentrons is listed as an emerging player.
Does Clear Labs have an API?
Yes. Clear Ix™ software offers Open API integration for genomic metadata analysis, with sequencing files and quality metrics available for download after analysis. The platform is designed to integrate with secondary and tertiary bioinformatics platforms for variant analysis, interpretation, and results reporting.
What industry is Clear Labs in?
Clear Labs's product category is Automated Genomics Sequencing Platforms. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HLAGANAA, Genomics & Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) Services, with a secondary code of HLAHAAAN, Laboratory Automation, Sample Prep & Liquid Handling (IVD Lab Diagnostics). Its NAICS code is 334516 and its SIC code is 3826.