What PhAST Diagnostics does

PhAST Diagnostics (legal entity PhAST Corp., Delaware) is an early-stage healthcare technology company founded in 2017 that develops an AI/ML-powered single-cell imaging platform aimed at combating antibiotic resistance through rapid infectious disease diagnostics. Its core product, the PhAST Cloud Platform, applies computer vision and machine learning to pathogen imagery to deliver clinical decision support to doctors, workflow improvement to hospitals, and drug development acceleration support to pharmaceutical companies. The company states its diagnostic turnaround time can be reduced from days to minutes, positioning the platform as a tool for antimicrobial stewardship and more accurate antibiotic prescribing.

The platform is delivered as a cloud-based service and relies on patented single-cell imaging technology with granted patents in the United States, Korea, Japan, and China, plus pending applications via the PCT and European patent systems. PhAST operates a tri-continental footprint with its US headquarters in Boston (38 Wareham St.), a European office in Zurich (Bolleystrasse 35), and an Asian office in Seoul/Bundang's Healthcare Innovation Park. Scientific and clinical collaborations with Harvard, Mayo Clinic, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, University Hospital Basel, and ETH Zurich anchor the R&D program, with senior AI guidance from Prof. Andreas Krause of the ETH AI Center and scientific leadership from co-founder Prof. Roman Stocker.

PhAST's commercial model is not yet disclosed in the available data: no pricing, revenue, ARR, or named paying customers are referenced. The company has raised approximately $18.8 million across four disclosed funding events (a 2019 seed from the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, a 2021 SEC Form D exempt offering of roughly $19 million with ~$10.8M sold, plus 2022 and 2025 follow-on rounds), and currently lists 11–50 employees with roughly two dozen named team members concentrated in data science, machine learning, biology, and software engineering. The company is led by CEO John (JT) Sauls, PhD, and co-founder Prof. Roman Stocker serves as Chief Scientific Officer.

Name

PhAST Diagnostics

Legal name

PhAST Corp.

Website

https://phast.ai

Company type

Private

Founded year

2017

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

PhAST Diagnostics builds an AI/ML-powered single-cell imaging cloud platform that delivers rapid infectious disease diagnostics and clinical decision support to hospitals, clinicians, and pharmaceutical companies, with the goal of combating antibiotic resistance.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Infectious Disease Diagnostic Software

NAICS

Medical Equipment and Supplies Manufacturing (3391), Surgical and Medical Instrument Manufacturing (339112)

SIC

Surgical & Medical Instruments & Apparatus (3841), Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)

akta.pro primary industry

Medical Imaging AI (HDAAAEAH)

akta.pro secondary industry

AI Orchestration & Imaging Analytics Platforms (Model Management/Triage) (HLACALAG)

Keywords

• Infectious disease diagnostics
• AI medical imaging
• Antimicrobial resistance testing
• Clinical decision support
• Pathogen identification

Headquarters

HQ city

Cambridge

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices4 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

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

Core offering

PhAST Diagnostics develops an AI/ML-powered single-cell imaging platform combined with a cloud-based clinical decision support system for infectious disease diagnostics. The platform enables rapid pathogen identification and antimicrobial resistance profiling directly from clinical samples. Core product offerings include the PhAST Cloud Platform for data analysis and clinical decision support.

Product overview

PhAST offers a single unified cloud-based AI platform for infectious disease diagnostics. The platform leverages single-cell imaging technology and machine learning to provide clinical decision support for doctors, improve hospital workflows, and support pharmaceutical drug development. The core product is the PhAST Cloud Platform, which processes pathogen imaging data to deliver rapid diagnostic results, reducing turnaround time from days to minutes.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• PhAST Cloud Platform

Quantifiable outcome

• Diagnostic turnaround time reduced from days to minutes

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability4 records

Feature2 records

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• Harvard UniversitycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerHarvard is listed as a Collaborating Institution alongside PhAST's team page, indicating a research and development partnership focused on infectious disease diagnostics and AI-powered imaging technology.
• Mayo CliniccoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerMayo Clinic is listed as a Collaborating Institution, with Dr. Robin Patel serving as Scientific Advisor and Director of the Infectious Diseases Research Laboratory and Chair of the Division of Clinical Microbiology at Mayo Clinic.
• Seoul National University Bundang Hospital (SNUBH)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSNUBH is listed as a Collaborating Institution, with Dr. Kyoung-ho Song (ID specialist) and Dr. Jeongsu Park (Chief of Department of Laboratory Medicine) serving as advisors to PhAST. The hospital contributes expertise in infectious diseases and antimicrobial stewardship.
• University Hospital BaselcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerUniversity Hospital Basel is listed as a Collaborating Institution, with Prof. Adrian Egli (Head of Clinical Microbiology) serving as Clinical Advisor to PhAST, contributing expertise in antibiotic resistance and novel diagnostic assays.
• ETH ZurichcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerETH Zurich is the home institution of Prof. Andreas Krause (AI/ML Advisor), who leads the Learning & Adaptive Systems Group at ETH, serves as Academic Co-Director of the Swiss Data Science Center, and Chair of the ETH AI Center. ETH Zurich also hosts a PhAST office location.

Scale indicators1 record

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• T2 Biosystems: T2 Biosystems develops rapid molecular diagnostics for sepsis and other infectious diseases using T2 Magnetic Resonance, competing directly with PhAST on speed of pathogen ID and resistance detection for hospital antimicrobial stewardship.
• Accelerate Diagnostics: Accelerate Diagnostics commercializes the Accelerate Pheno system for rapid identification and antimicrobial susceptibility testing directly from positive blood cultures—a near-direct clinical use case overlap with PhAST's single-cell imaging workflow.
• Specific Diagnostics: Specific Diagnostics is an emerging rapid ID/AST platform targeting hospital microbiology labs with sub-8-hour phenotypic susceptibility results, directly contesting PhAST's hospital laboratory customer segment.
• Q-linea: Q-linea (Sweden) develops the ASTar system for rapid antimicrobial susceptibility testing of positive blood cultures, targeting the same clinical microbiology customer profile and turnaround-time value proposition as PhAST.

Emerging players

• Day Zero Diagnostics: Day Zero Diagnostics uses whole-genome sequencing and machine learning to identify pathogens and predict antibiotic resistance, sharing PhAST's AI-driven approach to infectious disease diagnostics and clinical decision support.
• Selux Diagnostics: Selux Diagnostics is developing rapid phenotypic antimicrobial susceptibility testing with single-cell resolution, a technological approach that closely mirrors PhAST's single-cell imaging strategy.
• OpGen: OpGen (and its Curetis subsidiary) provides molecular diagnostics and bioinformatics for rapid multidrug-resistant organism detection, overlapping with PhAST on AMR-focused hospital laboratory decision support.

Broad incumbents

• bioMérieux: bioMérieux is the global leader in clinical microbiology diagnostics (VITEK, BACT/ALERT, BIOFIRE), serving the same hospital microbiology customers PhAST targets and representing both a competitor and potential acquirer/licensor of AI imaging IP.
• Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD): BD offers the BD MAX molecular diagnostics system and BD Phoenix M50 for identification and susceptibility testing, anchoring hospital microbiology workflows that PhAST must displace or integrate with.
• BioFire Diagnostics: BioFire (a bioMérieux subsidiary) leads the molecular syndromic testing market with its FilmArray panels, a major incumbent in rapid infectious disease diagnostics that competes for the same hospital workflow decision-maker.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses3 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/phast

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles7 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds4 records

Investors1 record

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 PhAST Diagnostics