Portrai

What Portrai does

Portrai is a Seoul-headquartered, privately held biotech technology company that applies AI and spatial transcriptomics to pharmaceutical drug discovery and development. Its core asset is a proprietary spatial transcriptomics database covering more than 2,000 patient samples and over 50 million spatially resolved cells across solid tumor indications, claimed to be the world's largest of its kind for cancer. Around this database, the company has built an integrated suite of five platforms: PortraiTME (AI pathology on H&E slides), PortraiTARGET (target discovery and evaluation for ADCs, radiopharmaceuticals, and bispecifics, integrating spatial transcriptomics, quantitative pathology, and PBPK modeling), PortraiMIX (label-free spatial analysis of advanced biologics), PortraiMOA (mechanism-of-action analytics), and PortraiDISCOVERY (TMA-based biomarker and pathophysiology analysis). The most recent product layer — VGL, a multimodal large language model, and PortrAIgent, an autonomous AI agent — was unveiled at AACR 2026.

Portrai serves global biopharmaceutical and biotechnology companies developing ADCs, radiopharmaceuticals, T cell engagers, and targeted protein degraders, alongside Korean academic medical centers. Revenue mechanics combine platform/data licensing, custom spatial analysis services (8–16 week timelines), and co-development partnerships with pharma, with named enterprise counterparties including Celltrion (joint target discovery agreement, Oct 2025) and Amgen (2025 Golden Ticket award). Go-to-market is direct enterprise field sales supported by presence at AACR, JPM Healthcare Conference, and via a Cambridge, MA US office, with Japanese market entry supported by a partnership with aix.

The company is venture-backed, having closed a 14.5 billion KRW (~$9.8M) Series B in December 2025 led by Stic Ventures alongside eight Korean VCs. Its senior team — CEO Daeseung Lee, CTO Hongyoon Choi, CSO Hyung-Jun Im, and CMO Kwon Na — is composed of Seoul National University medical school graduates, three of whom remain active SNU professors, providing embedded clinical and translational access.

Name

Portrai

Legal name

Portrai Inc.

Website

https://portrai.io

Company type

Private

Founded year

2021

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Portrai is a Seoul-based biotech techbio company applying AI and spatial transcriptomics to pharmaceutical drug discovery, serving global biopharma and Korean academic centers with an integrated target-discovery and biomarker platform built on a 2,000+ sample spatial database.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

AI Drug Discovery / Spatial Biology Platform

NAICS

Research and Development in Biotechnology (except Nanobiotechnology) (541714), Scientific Research and Development Services (5417), Medical Laboratories (621511)

SIC

Services-Medical Laboratories (8071), In Vitro & In Vivo Diagnostic Substances (2835)

akta.pro primary industry

AI/ML-Enabled Biologic Discovery Platforms (computational design, in silico screening) (HLAAAIAE)

akta.pro secondary industries

Single-Cell & Spatial Omics Discovery Platforms (target ID/validation, functional profiling) (HLAAAIAF), Molecular Pathology & Tissue Biomarkers (IHC/ISH, digital pathology-linked markers) (HLAAAMAI), Translational Medicine & Biomarkers (HLAIALAF), AI/ML Platforms for Drug Discovery & Experiment Optimization (HLAGAJAO)

Keywords

• Spatial transcriptomics analysis
• AI drug discovery
• Tumor microenvironment analysis
• Biomarker development
• Spatial biology platform

Headquarters

HQ city

Seoul

HQ country

South Korea

HQ region

Asia

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Platform/Services Licensing: Portrai generates revenue by providing access to its proprietary spatial biology platforms (PortraiTME, PortraiTARGET, PortraiMIX, PortraiMOA, PortraiDISCOVERY) to biotech and pharmaceutical companies. Services include target discovery, biomarker development, spatial analysis, and dataset licensing. Analysis timelines range from 8-16 weeks for discovery services to 16 weeks for MOA analysis.
2. Co-development Partnerships: Revenue generated through co-development agreements with pharmaceutical partners for ADC, radiopharmaceutical, T cell engager, and TPD drug development. Partners include Celltrion, Amgen, and other global pharmaceutical companies.
3. Custom Spatial Analysis and Dataset Licensing: Custom spatial analysis services and licensing of proprietary spatial transcriptomics datasets to pharmaceutical and biotech companies for their internal research programs.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Portrai provides an integrated spatial biology platform that combines spatial transcriptomics with AI and deep learning for drug discovery and development. The platform consists of PortraiTME (AI pathology), PortraiTARGET (target discovery for ADC, radiopharmaceutical, and bispecific therapeutics), PortraiMIX (label-free spatial transcriptomics for advanced biologics), PortraiMOA (mechanism of action analysis), and PortraiDISCOVERY (disease pathophysiology and biomarker discovery), all powered by a proprietary spatial database of over 2,000 patient samples and 50 million spatially resolved cells.

Product overview

Portrai offers a unified spatial biology platform consisting of multiple integrated products: PortraiDISCOVERY for disease pathophysiology and biomarker analysis, PortraiTARGET for next-generation target discovery in ADC/RPT/bispecific therapeutics, PortraiMIX for label-free spatial transcriptomics of advanced biologics, PortraiMOA for mechanism of action analysis, and PortraiTME for AI-powered pathology on H&E slides. These products are powered by a proprietary spatial database of 2,000+ patient samples and 50M+ spatially resolved cells, enabling end-to-end spatial biology insights from target discovery through clinical indication and biomarker development.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• PortraiDISCOVERY: Spatial transcriptomics analysis platform for studying disease pathophysiology and biomarker discovery
• PortraiTARGET
• PortraiMIX
• PortraiMOA
• PortraiTME

Products and services

• PortraiDISCOVERY Analyzes pathophysiology of diseases and discovers biomarkers using tissue microarray (TMA) technology. Delivers raw data, pre-processed data by core, marker analysis, cell ratios, and spatial network analysis over an 8-16 week average timeline.
• PortraiTARGET Precision engine for therapeutic target discovery and evaluation for ADC, RPT, and bispecific drug development. Integrates spatial transcriptomics, quantitative pathology, and pharmacokinetic modeling with features including molecular-to-spatial target mapping, MTHD for ADC response prediction, ITEM Analysis for intra-tumoral heterogeneity, and PBPK modeling.
• PortraiMIX Label-free spatial transcriptomics platform for next-generation therapeutics. Reveals distribution and biological impact of advanced biologics (mRNA, cell, gene, microbiome therapies) in tissue microenvironments without fluorescent or genetic tagging.
• PortraiMOA Mechanism of Action analysis platform that examines gene expression changes before and after drug administration. Delivers Interactive Reports showing gene increase/decrease patterns after drug administration, with an average timeline of 16 weeks.
• PortraiTME AI pathology platform that transforms routine H&E-stained tissue slides into spatially resolved maps of cellular composition. Provides pixel-level cell type prediction (epithelial, myeloid, fibroblast, lymphocyte, NK/T, endothelial, B cells) with cancer-type specific models validated by high AUROC performance.
• Portrai Spatial Database Proprietary spatial transcriptomics database containing over 2,000 patient-derived samples and more than 50 million spatially resolved cells across key solid tumor therapeutic areas. Integrates high-resolution tissue data, cellular neighborhood context, and molecular profiling to power target discovery, biomarker development, and MOA deconvolution.
• VGL (Multimodal Large Language Model) Multimodal large language model unveiled at AACR 2026 for automating spatial transcriptomics analysis for tumor microenvironment research and ADC drug development. Combines text, spatial, and molecular data inputs.
• PortrAIgent Autonomous AI agent for automating spatial transcriptomics analysis for tumor microenvironment research and ADC drug development. Takes multi-step actions with limited human intervention.

Quantifiable outcome

• NSCLC model achieves Epithelial AUROC 0.96, Lymphocytes AUROC 0.93, Endothelial AUROC 0.95
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

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 capability8 records

Feature8 records

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered core, flagship and minor.

• Hanyang UniversitycoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 April 2026MOU with Hanyang University's Bio-specimen & Multi-omics Digital Bio-analysis Support Center and HY-ABC (Advanced Bio-convergence Research Institute) for building spatial transcriptomics analysis pipeline and virtual lab.
• Gachon University Gachon Hospital (Gachon Institute of Innovative Medicine)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 28 November 2025Joint research agreement to establish a comprehensive research support system from spatial omics data generation to analysis and visualization, to be opened to external researchers.
• AmgenflagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 13 November 2025Portrai won the Amgen-KHIDI Golden Ticket 2025, a global open innovation initiative to identify promising biotech ventures and support their global growth.
• CelltrioncoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 29 October 2025Joint research agreement for discovering new cancer drug targets using spatial transcriptomics and AI technology. Celltrion utilizes Portrai's spatial transcriptomics database and AI analysis platform PortraiTARGET to jointly discover drug targets.
• Seoul National University Hospital Neuropsychiatric Disease Efficacy Evaluation CenterminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 15 March 2024MOU for accelerating drug development and improving clinical trial success rates using spatial biology technology.
• aixminorGTM or Marketing Partner · 11 November 2021Strategic business partnership for market entry into Japanese drug development support market.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• 10x Genomics: Leading provider of spatial transcriptomics platforms (Visium, Xenium) and single-cell tools used by biopharma for target and biomarker discovery. Directly comparable as a spatial biology platform vendor with overlapping drug-development use cases.
• NanoString Technologies (Bruker Spatial Biology): Offers GeoMx and CosMx spatial omics platforms widely adopted by translational researchers and biopharma. Comparable technology stack and customer base in spatial biology for oncology drug development.
• Vizgen: Developer of MERFISH spatial transcriptomics technology serving biopharma and academic translational researchers. Competes with Portrai in single-cell, subcellular spatial profiling for target discovery.
• Akoya Biosciences: Provides multiplex spatial biology (CODEX, Phenoptics) platforms used in tumor microenvironment research and biomarker development. Comparable in serving biopharma spatial profiling and pathology needs.
• Biognosys: Provides proteomics-based discovery services (including spatial) to biopharma for target identification and biomarker work. Comparable as a discovery-services vendor leveraging omics data for drug development.

Emerging players

• Resolve Biosciences: Molecular Cartography platform for subcellular spatial transcriptomics with strong pharma adoption story. Comparable as a focused spatial omics platform competing for similar biopharma translational dollars.
• Owkin: AI biotech combining multimodal patient data (including spatial) with pharma partnerships for target discovery and clinical development. Comparable in applying AI to pathology and omics for biopharma pipeline decisions.

Broad incumbents

• Tempus AI: AI-driven precision medicine company building large multi-modal clinical and molecular databases for biopharma R&D. Broader incumbent with overlapping AI-for-drug-discovery value proposition but on different data modalities.
• Standard BioTools (formerly Fluidigm): Life sciences tools provider with spatial and single-cell instrumentation used in translational research and pharma R&D. Comparable as an established spatial biology tool vendor with broader portfolio.
• Schrodinger: AI-driven computational drug discovery platform with biopharma collaborations. Comparable in combining AI platforms with pharma co-development, though focused on computational chemistry rather than spatial biology.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• GitHubgithub.com/portrai-io
• YouTubeyoutube.com/@portrai9596
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/portrai-inc

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors7 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 Portrai