Solu
Solu provides a cloud-based genomic surveillance platform that automates microbial genome analysis and antimicrobial resistance detection without code, serving hospital laboratories, infection prevention teams, and academic and government research institutions globally.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2022
- HeadquartersHelsinki, Finland
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Solu does
Solu, founded in 2022 and headquartered in Helsinki, Finland, and operating as Solu Healthcare, Inc. in the United States, has built a cloud-based genomic surveillance platform that automates the analysis of microbial genomes without requiring code, command-line tools, or local configuration. The platform accepts sequencing data via a browser interface and runs end-to-end bioinformatics workflows including read quality verification, de novo genome assembly for short and long reads, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) gene and point mutation annotation, whole-genome SNP variant calling, virulence factor detection, maximum-likelihood phylogenetic tree construction, plasmid-borne AMR detection, and core genome Multilocus Sequence Typing (cgMLST) built on community-standard schemes validated against published studies. The product targets hospital laboratories, infection prevention and control (IPC) teams, and academic and government research institutions that need to identify antibiotic-resistant bacteria and respond to outbreaks faster than conventional bioinformatics pipelines allow, with stated outcomes of reducing bacteria identification time from hours to minutes.
The company monetizes the platform through a SaaS subscription model with a self-serve 14-day free trial and free account creation, complemented by quote-based enterprise contracts for larger deployments. Go-to-market combines product-led growth through the platform.solugenomics.com signup flow with enterprise field sales targeting hospitals, public-health agencies, and university research groups. Named users and collaborators include Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, ESR and Awanui Labs in New Zealand, Stanford University, the University of Hamburg, UZ Leuven, the NIH, Institut Pasteur, the University of Oxford, and UAE University. The platform holds ISO 27001 certification and GDPR compliance attestation, supporting procurement in regulated European and healthcare environments. Solu raised €1 million in seed funding in June 2023 from Lifeline Ventures (lead) and Wave Ventures to develop its pathogen DNA library and expand operations, and as of mid-2024 had fewer than ten employees with no disclosed revenue.
Solu firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Solu
- Legal name
- Solu Healthcare, Inc.
- Website
- https://solu.bio
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2022
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- Solu provides a cloud-based genomic surveillance platform that automates microbial genome analysis and antimicrobial resistance detection without code, serving hospital laboratories, infection prevention teams, and academic and government research institutions globally.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Solu industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Bioinformatics Software
- NAICS
- Software Publishers (513210), Software Publishers (5132)
- SIC
- Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Bioinformatics & Multi-omics Analysis Software (HLAGAJAD)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Microbiology LIS/LIMS (HLACAMAD), Laboratory-Based Surveillance & Genomic Epidemiology (WGS/NGS) (HLAJABAC)
Keywords
Where Solu is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Helsinki
- HQ country
- Finland
- HQ region
- Europe
Offices1 record
Markets served
Solu business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Personnel, Infrastructure, Operations, Marketing or Sales
Revenue model
- SaaS Platform Subscription: Cloud-based genomic surveillance platform accessible via subscription. Users can sign up for free with a 14-day free trial, suggesting a freemium or subscription model with tiered pricing based on usage or features.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Freemium | Monthly | Free trial tier - 14-day full access trial |
| Subscription | Annual | Standard subscription - Full platform access |
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels2 records
Marketing channels4 records
Solu product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Solu operates a cloud-based, browser-accessible genomic surveillance platform that automates bioinformatics workflows for analyzing microbial genomes in real time. The platform performs read quality verification, de novo genome assembly, AMR gene annotation, variant calling, virulence detection, phylogenetic tree construction, plasmid analysis, and cgMLST comparison without requiring code or configuration. It is targeted at hospital laboratories, infection prevention and control teams, and research institutions for rapid identification of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and outbreak surveillance.
Product overview
Solu offers a unified genomic surveillance platform centered on the Solu Platform, a cloud-based web application that enables real-time analysis of microbial genomes without requiring coding or configuration. The platform integrates multiple bioinformatics modules including read quality verification, genome assembly, AMR gene annotation, variant calling, virulence detection, phylogenetic tree construction, plasmid analysis, and real-time collaboration. An additional capability is cgMLST (core genome Multilocus Sequence Typing), which provides a standardized method for comparing samples across institutions. The platform is designed for hospital laboratories, infection prevention teams, and research institutions to rapidly respond to potential outbreaks.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Solu Platform Real-time genomic surveillance platform that enables analysis of microbial genomes directly in a web browser without requiring code or configuration. The cloud-based platform automates bioinformatics workflows including read quality verification, genome assembly, AMR gene annotation, variant calling, phylogenetic tree construction, and plasmid analysis. Designed for hospital laboratories, IPC teams, and research institutions to rapidly respond to potential outbreaks and identify antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
Quantifiable outcome
- Bacteria identification time reduced from hours to minutes
- +1 more outcomes
Companies that use Solu
Customer profileNamed customers3 records
Segments3 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Solu technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Feature9 records
Solu partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Two partnerships are on record, tiered core.
- Stanford UniversitycoreCollaborative research partnership on antibiotic resistance. Stanford Professor Dr. Paul Bollyky has provided testimonials about the platform being intuitive and easy to use. The collaboration focuses on monitoring bacterial pathogen evolution and improving detection of superbugs for diagnostics and antibiotic development.
- University of HamburgcoreInternational university collaboration on antibiotic resistance research. Partner in the development of the pathogen DNA library for rapid identification of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
Scale indicators2 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights5 records
Solu competitors and assessment
Company assessmentBroad incumbents
- Qiagen Digital Insights (CLC bio): Qiagen's bioinformatics division (formerly CLC bio) provides established genomic analysis workbenches widely used in clinical microbiology and infectious-disease research. It competes with Solu in the same hospital-lab and reference-lab customer base, but is bundled with Qiagen's broader sample-prep and assay portfolio rather than focused on AMR-specific surveillance.
- Benchling: Benchling is a cloud life-sciences R&D platform with expanding capabilities in molecular biology and sequence analysis used by biotech and academic customers. It overlaps with Solu on cloud-native lab workflows for researchers but is broader in scope, covering ELN, registry, and assay design rather than specializing in microbial genomic surveillance.
- Illumina BaseSpace Sequence Hub: Illumina BaseSpace is a cloud ecosystem for NGS analysis tightly integrated with Illumina sequencers and DRAGEN pipelines. It competes with Solu for the same sequencing-lab customer base, especially in clinical microbiology, and benefits from default placement on Illumina instruments that Solu must displace.
Direct peers
- DNAnexus: DNAnexus is a cloud-based bioinformatics platform serving clinical and translational genomics customers with automated pipelines for variant calling, assembly, and surveillance. Like Solu, it targets regulated healthcare and research institutions, offers a SaaS delivery model, and competes for AMR and infectious-disease genomic surveillance workloads.
- Geneious (Biomatters): Geneious is a desktop-and-cloud molecular biology toolkit used by microbiology labs for sequence alignment, assembly, and phylogenetic analysis. It addresses the same hospital-lab and academic researcher customers as Solu, with overlapping features (assembly, variant calling, trees) but a more generalist, code-friendly interface.
- BioNumerics (Applied Maths): BioNumerics is a specialized database and analysis platform for clinical microbiology and public-health typing, including cgMLST/wgMLST schemes and outbreak surveillance. It is one of Solu's closest direct competitors, serving public-health labs and reference laboratories with comparable AMR and outbreak-detection workflows.
Emerging players
- Chan Zuckerberg ID (CZID): CZID is a free, cloud-based metagenomic and pathogen genomic surveillance platform built with CZI funding. It overlaps with Solu on infectious-disease genomic analysis for research and public-health users, and competes on price (free) for academic and government segments where Solu's freemium tier also targets customers.
- Nextstrain: Nextstrain is an open-source pathogen-phylogenomics platform providing real-time tracking of viral and bacterial evolution. It shares Solu's surveillance and phylogenetic-tree functionality for outbreak response but is free, academic, and requires bioinformatics expertise, positioning it as an indirect competitor especially in research settings.
- PathogenWatch: PathogenWatch is a genomic surveillance platform for bacterial typing and AMR prediction developed by the Centre for Genomic Pathogen Surveillance. It targets the same public-health and reference-laboratory use cases as Solu (AMR gene detection, outbreak tracking) and represents a focused emerging competitor with academic backing.
- BugSeq: BugSeq is a no-code, cloud-based metagenomic and pathogen detection platform aimed at clinical microbiology labs. It is one of Solu's closest emerging competitors, offering a similar drag-and-drop, browser-based experience for users without bioinformatics expertise in hospital settings.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Solu social profiles
Digital presenceSolu compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance2 records
Solu financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Solu leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Solu funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds1 record
Investors2 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Solu 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 Solu
What does Solu do?
Solu operates a cloud-based, browser-accessible genomic surveillance platform that automates bioinformatics workflows for analyzing microbial genomes in real time. The platform performs read quality verification, de novo genome assembly, AMR gene annotation, variant calling, virulence detection, phylogenetic tree construction, plasmid analysis, and cgMLST comparison without requiring code or configuration. It is targeted at hospital laboratories, infection prevention and control teams, and research institutions for rapid identification of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and outbreak surveillance.
Is Solu a public or private company?
Solu is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was Solu founded?
Solu was founded in 2022. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is Solu based?
Solu is headquartered in Helsinki, Finland, in the Europe region.
How does Solu make money?
One revenue line is on record: saaS Platform Subscription.
Who are Solu's main competitors?
Broad incumbents on record are Qiagen Digital Insights (CLC bio), Benchling and Illumina BaseSpace Sequence Hub. Direct peers are DNAnexus, Geneious (Biomatters) and BioNumerics (Applied Maths). Emerging players are Chan Zuckerberg ID (CZID), Nextstrain, PathogenWatch and BugSeq.
Does Solu have an API?
No public API is recorded for Solu.
What industry is Solu in?
Solu's product category is Bioinformatics Software. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HLAGAJAD, Bioinformatics & Multi-omics Analysis Software, with a secondary code of HLACAMAD, Microbiology LIS/LIMS. Its NAICS code is 513210 and its SIC code is 7372.