Zafrens

What Zafrens does

Zafrens is a San Diego-based biotechnology company founded in 2021 that builds high-throughput cell characterization instrumentation for drug discovery. Its flagship product, the Z-Screen platform, is a nanofabricated assay system operating in a 50,000–200,000 well-per-plate format with a built-in mRNA sequencer, enabling simultaneous functional and transcriptomic profiling of live cells at a scale not achievable with conventional plate-based screens. Building on this substrate, the company offers two commercial assays — Active-seq, which profiles active cellular states, and Active-Drug-seq, which captures drug-induced responses — supporting applications including TCR discovery and the identification of RNA regulatory small molecules.

The company serves pharmaceutical and biotechnology customers through an enterprise B2B go-to-market combining platform licensing, direct partnerships, and custom drug-discovery services. It operates as a private Delaware C-corporation with 11–50 employees and has raised $31M cumulatively across seed and Series A rounds (including a Feb 2025 expansion), with investors including Prime Movers Lab, imec.xpand, Global Brain Corporation, KOFA Healthcare, Alix Ventures, and BlueYard Capital. Leadership comprises CEO Kandaswamy (Swamy) Vijayan and EVP of Engineering Yi Zhang.

Zafrens' business model combines upfront platform access fees with milestone-based economics on partnered discovery programs, targeting pharma and biotech R&D organizations that require deeper functional-genomic readouts than legacy screening tools provide. Strategic priorities indicated by recent financings include broadening the assay menu, deepening nanofabrication partnerships (notably with imec.xpand), and positioning the resulting datasets as a substrate for AI-driven target and mechanism-of-action discovery.

Name

Zafrens

Legal name

Zafrens Inc.

Website

https://zafrens.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2021

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Zafrens is a San Diego biotech that builds the Z-Screen high-throughput cell characterization platform — nanofabricated plates with 50,000–200,000 wells and built-in mRNA sequencing — and offers Active-seq and Active-Drug-seq assays to pharmaceutical and biotech drug-discovery partners.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Drug Discovery Platform

NAICS

Analytical Laboratory Instrument Manufacturing (334516), Research and Development in Biotechnology (except Nanobiotechnology) (541714), Scientific Research and Development Services (5417)

SIC

Laboratory Analytical Instruments (3826)

akta.pro primary industry

Single-Cell & Spatial Omics Discovery Platforms (target ID/validation, functional profiling) (HLAAAIAF)

akta.pro secondary industries

AI/ML Platforms for Drug Discovery & Experiment Optimization (HLAGAJAO), Drug Discovery (Target ID/Validation & Hit Discovery) (HLAIALAA), CRISPR & Functional Genomics Screening Platforms (pooled/arrayed screens, perturb-seq) (HLAAAIAG), Target Identification & Validation Platforms (omics-driven, chemoproteomics, genetic validation) (HLAAAIAI)

Keywords

• High-throughput screening
• Drug discovery platform
• Single-cell multi-omics
• Cellular analysis technology
• Phenotypic screening

Headquarters

HQ city

San Diego

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Platform Licensing and Partnerships: Zafrens generates revenue through platform licensing deals and research collaborations with pharmaceutical companies. The company has demonstrated platform value through partnerships with pharmaceutical firms and plans to increase capacity for new collaborations.
2. Drug Discovery Services: The company provides drug discovery services focused on TCR discovery and RNA regulatory small molecules, serving pharmaceutical and biotech clients.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Zafrens offers the Z-Screen platform, a proprietary nanofabrication-based benchtop instrument that performs high-throughput cellular analysis by replacing the conventional 96-well plate format with a 50,000-200,000 well plate format containing a built-in mRNA sequencer. The platform delivers paired longitudinal imaging and sequencing data at single-cell resolution, enabling pharmaceutical and biotech customers to accelerate drug discovery across small molecules, biologics, cell therapies, and gene therapies. The company also provides drug discovery services focused on TCR discovery and RNA regulatory small molecules.

Product overview

Zafrens offers a unified platform ecosystem centered on the Z-Screen™ platform, a proprietary drug discovery technology. The core platform enables high-throughput cellular analysis through a universal workflow accepting cells and beads as inputs to produce paired longitudinal imaging and sequencing data. Key platform modules include Active-seq for mapping molecular states to cell function, and Active-Drug-seq for simultaneous phenotypic and molecular screening. The platform supports all therapeutic modalities including small molecules, biologics, cell therapies, and gene therapies, with current focus areas in small molecule drug discovery and T cell analysis.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Z-Screen™: Proprietary platform enabling high-throughput cellular analysis and drug discovery through 50,000-200,000 well plate format with built-in mRNA sequencer

Products and services

• Z-Screen Platform A high-throughput cellular analysis platform that replaces conventional 96-well plate formats with 50,000-200,000 well plate formats containing built-in mRNA sequencers, enabling simultaneous imaging and sequencing of every cell in an assay to reveal causal relationships between perturbations and cellular responses. Targeted at pharmaceutical and biotech companies for drug discovery applications including small molecules, biologics, cell therapies, and gene therapies.
• Drug Discovery Services (TCR Discovery and RNA Regulatory Small Molecules) Professional services leveraging the Z-Screen platform to conduct TCR (T cell receptor) discovery for cell therapies and RNA regulatory small molecules development for pharmaceutical and biotech clients. The services help customers address long drug discovery timelines and high failure rates in clinical trials.

Quantifiable outcome

• 50,000-200,000 simultaneous experiments vs traditional 96-well format
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers1 record

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability3 records

Feature6 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Pharmaceutical FirmscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerZafrens has demonstrated platform value through partnerships with pharmaceutical firms, indicating collaborative drug discovery relationships.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Market position

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks3 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles6 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds4 records

Investors11 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Zafrens