Natural Selection

What Natural Selection does

Natural Selection, Inc. is a privately held San Diego-based computational intelligence company applying nature-inspired algorithms—including evolutionary computation, neural networks, and fuzzy systems—to predictive analytics, optimization, and pattern recognition problems. The company was founded on the pioneering work of Dr. Lawrence J. Fogel, who helped originate evolutionary computation in the 1960s, and is currently led by CEO Dr. Gary B. Fogel and President Dr. David B. Fogel, both IEEE Fellows with 25+ and 30+ years of experience respectively. It serves three primary verticals—Medicine & Bioinformatics, Industry & Finance, and Defense & Homeland Security—with a customer base spanning federal agencies (FDA, DARPA, FAA, NIH, NSF, U.S. Marine Corps), pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms (Eli Lilly, Isis Pharmaceuticals, BioInfoExperts, Theragence), and industrial/transportation organizations (CalTrans, ThermoFisher Scientific).

The company's core product is Connect®, a commercially available software platform that bundles evolutionary computation, neural networks, and fuzzy systems for scheduling, routing, pattern recognition, forecasting, clustering, and optimization. Named proprietary solutions include BEAGLE (transcription factor binding site discovery for genomics), Serenity™ (interactive evolutionary computation for personalized tinnitus mask design), and PREDICT (the FDA's risk-based import screening tool). The company holds multiple registered patents covering advanced pattern recognition, self-learning data mining, and interactive evolutionary computation for audio personalization, and was the inaugural recipient of the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society Organization Award.

Revenue is generated through four streams: U.S. federal contracts and SBIR grants (DARPA, FDA, NSF, NIH, U.S. Army funding), commercial licensing of the Connect® software platform, data and IP licensing (notably microRNA discoveries licensed to ThermoFisher Scientific), and custom consulting engagements. Go-to-market is sales-led B2B/B2G, relying on scientific publications and academic credentials to establish credibility with government and enterprise buyers rather than broad demand generation. Pricing is quote-based and tailored to contract scope, with multi-year engagement terms.

Name

Natural Selection

Legal name

Natural Selection, Inc.

Website

https://natural-selection.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1993

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Natural Selection, Inc. applies nature-inspired computational intelligence—including evolutionary computation, neural networks, and fuzzy systems—to predictive analytics, optimization, and pattern recognition for government agencies and enterprises in defense, medicine, bioinformatics, and industrial/finance sectors.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Computational Intelligence Software

NAICS

Software Publishers (5132)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)

akta.pro primary industry

Digital & AI-Enabled Diagnostics (algorithmic interpretation, decision support tied to assays) (HLAAALAO)

Keywords

• Computational intelligence software
• Evolutionary computation algorithms
• Predictive analytics platforms
• Bioinformatics analytics tools
• Pattern recognition systems

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

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

Revenue model

1. Government Contracts and SBIR Funding: Natural Selection, Inc. generates revenue through government contracts and Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants from agencies including DARPA, FDA, NSF, NIH, and U.S. Army. These contracts fund development of computational intelligence solutions for defense, healthcare, and security applications.
2. Commercial Software Licensing (Connect®): The company licenses its Connect® software platform commercially for industrial optimization, financial forecasting, and other applications. Revenue is generated through software licensing arrangements with enterprise customers.
3. Data Licensing and Microarray Sales: Portions of research data, including microRNA data, have been licensed for commercial sale (e.g., Invitrogen/ThermoFisher NCode Multi-species miRNA Microarray), generating licensing revenue.
4. Consulting and Professional Services: The company provides consulting services for adapting computational intelligence solutions to client-specific problems, including custom model development and integration.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Natural Selection, Inc. develops and licenses computational intelligence software—centered on its Connect® platform—that applies evolutionary computation, neural networks, and fuzzy systems to optimization, scheduling, routing, pattern recognition, forecasting, and clustering. The company also delivers custom consulting and contract research services, productizing specialized tools such as Serenity™ for tinnitus treatment, BEAGLE for genomic analysis, and PREDICT for FDA import risk targeting.

Product overview

Natural Selection, Inc. offers computational intelligence software solutions centered on its core commercial product, Connect®, which incorporates evolutionary computation, neural networks, and fuzzy systems. The company's offerings span specialized applications including Serenity™ for personalized tinnitus treatment, BEAGLE for genomic analysis, and the FDA's PREDICT tool for import compliance. These products leverage over 20 years of applied computational intelligence for predictive analytics, optimization, and pattern recognition across medicine, industry, and defense sectors.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Connect®: A commercially available set of software tools incorporating core technologies of evolutionary computation, neural networks, fuzzy systems, and other computational intelligence approaches for scheduling, routing, pattern recognition, forecasting, and clustering.
• Serenity™
• BEAGLE

Products and services

• Connect® software platform Commercially available set of software tools incorporating evolutionary computation, neural networks, and fuzzy systems for optimization, scheduling, routing, pattern recognition, forecasting, and clustering applications across industrial, financial, and research customers.
• Serenity™ personalized tinnitus treatment Patented pre-clinical approach using interactive evolutionary computation to personalize tinnitus masks, allowing users to customize sounds that help alleviate their particular tinnitus symptoms.
• BEAGLE software tool Evolutionary computation software tool for finding transcription factor binding sites in co-expressed genes, including novel composite binding sites without prior sequence knowledge, developed in collaboration with Eli Lilly & Company for genomic research applications.
• PREDICT (Predictive Risk-Based Evaluation for Dynamic Import Compliance Targeting) Risk-based evaluation tool developed for the U.S. FDA to target imported products for examination, reducing risk of unsafe products entering commerce while expediting entry for products in compliance with FDA regulations.

Quantifiable outcome

• Improved screening efficiency for FDA imported product inspections through PREDICT tool
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers9 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 capability9 records

Feature8 records

Partnerships

13 partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerNatural Selection developed the FDA's Predictive Risk-Based Evaluation for Dynamic Import Compliance Targeting (PREDICT) tool, which reduced risk of unsafe products entering commerce and expedited entry for compliant products. This collaboration resulted in a 2010 FDA Honor Award.
• DARPAcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerFunded by DARPA, Natural Selection developed sensor fusion capabilities for the U.S. Marine Corps using evolutionary computation and nonlinear modeling for situation awareness.
• Eli Lilly & CompanycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration using evolutionary computation to find transcription factor binding sites in co-expressed genes using the BEAGLE software tool, demonstrating discovery of novel binding sites.
• Isis PharmaceuticalsminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration to develop software using evolutionary algorithms to search for common RNA structures in human pathogens, demonstrating ability to search large spaces of RNA structures.
• BioInfoExpertscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration with BioInfoExperts and UC San Francisco under NIH funding to co-develop classifiers predicting viral tropism and late-stage HIV pathogenic effects.
• Theragence, Inc.coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership for identifying the right drug at the right time for the right patient, developing companion diagnostics based on genomic, demographic, and other information.
• UC San FranciscocoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration under NIH funding for HIV research including viral tropism prediction and AIDS-related pathogenicity studies.
• ThermoFisher Scientific (formerly Invitrogen)minorOEM/ Whitelabel/ Licensing PartnerMicroRNA data and discoveries were licensed to Invitrogen (now ThermoFisher) for commercial sale on the NCode Multi-species miRNA Microarray, used worldwide for small RNA expression research.
• CalTrans and UC Irvine Institute of Transportation StudiescoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership using evolutionary computation to model optimal freeway ramp metering for Southern California region with real-time sensor-based adaptation.
• Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerDeveloped computational intelligence algorithms for the FAA to detect unwanted intrusions in internet and intranet systems using anomalous behavior detection without predefined threat examples.
• Southwestern CollegeminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration under U.S. Army funding to develop novel approaches for high-throughput small molecule drug screening using computational intelligence to evolve drugs in silico.
• National Science Foundation (NSF)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSBIR funding from NSF for development of evolved classifiers to predict microRNA gene locations and for the Serenity tinnitus personalized medicine project.
• National Institutes of Health (NIH)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerNIH funding supporting HIV research collaborations including viral tropism classification and AIDS-related pathogenicity analysis.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights3 records

Broad incumbents

• SAIC: Major federal IT and engineering services contractor with AI/data analytics offerings across defense, transportation (FAA), and biomedical markets — a large incumbent competing for the same agencies NSI serves.
• Leidos: Large federal systems integrator with significant defense AI, sensor fusion, and biomedical analytics practices — overlaps with NSI's C4ISR and FDA-adjacent work but at vastly greater scale.
• Palantir Technologies: Leading government and commercial AI/analytics platform provider serving DoD, intelligence, FDA, and healthcare customers — competing for many of the same predictive analytics and threat forecasting dollars, though at much larger scope.

Emerging players

• Schrödinger, Inc. Computational drug discovery company combining physics-based modeling with machine learning for pharma R&D — comparable to NSI's BEAGLE/Theragence companion diagnostics and Eli Lilly drug discovery work, though more commercially scaled.

Direct peers

• Kitware: Clifton Park, NY-based R&D company providing open-source and commercial AI, computer vision, and computational intelligence solutions for DARPA, NIH, and DoD — competing head-to-head for many of the same SBIR and BAA awards.
• Charles River Analytics: Cambridge, MA-based R&D firm applying computational intelligence, machine learning, and human-systems integration to defense, intelligence, and biomedical problems — a direct competitor for federal AI and SBIR contracts alongside NSI.
• Aptima, Inc. Woburn, MA-based R&D firm building AI-enabled human-centered systems for defense and aerospace — comparable in size, SBIR funding mix, and multi-vertical (defense/biomedical) approach to NSI.
• Soar Technology: Ann Arbor, MI-based AI company focused on intelligent systems, autonomous behavior, and decision-support for DoD and intelligence customers — directly comparable to NSI's evolutionary computation and C4ISR work.
• Intelligent Automation, Inc. (IAI): Rockville, MD-based small business applying AI, machine learning, and signal processing to defense and biomedical programs — a near-direct match on size, customer profile (DARPA, NIH, Army), and SBIR-heavy revenue mix.

Others

• Parasoft (defense analytics practice): Software testing and AI-enabled analytics provider with adjacent federal/defense exposure; included as an ecosystem participant in the government AI tooling space rather than a direct competitor.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/pages/Natural-Selection-Inc/208799249149845
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/natural-selection

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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 Natural Selection