Zora Biosciences

What Zora Biosciences does

Zora Biosciences Oy is a Finnish cardiometabolic diagnostics company founded in 2007 and headquartered in Espoo, Finland. The company applies mass spectrometry-based lipidomics—specifically LC-MS/MS quantification of ceramide and phospholipid molecular species—to develop clinical diagnostic tests for cardiovascular and metabolic disease risk. Its commercial product portfolio centers on two ceramide-based risk scores: CERT2, which predicts myocardial infarction, cardiovascular death, stroke, and MACE by measuring seven specific lipid species, and dScore, which estimates ten-year type II diabetes onset probability. A fatty liver disease test is in development, and the company maintains a broader pipeline spanning ovarian cancer diagnostics and COVID-19 treatment guidance. Technology is protected through granted patents on ceramide-analysis methodology and has been validated against 80,000+ patient samples across multiple international cohorts, including landmark Harvard TIMI trial data.

The company operates a hybrid commercial model combining licensing and direct reference laboratory services. Ceramide-analysis technology is licensed non-exclusively to major diagnostic laboratories including Mayo Clinic (commercialized as CERAM since 2016) and Quest Diagnostics (licensed in March 2021 for US distribution through Cleveland HeartLab). In Finland, Zora operates its own reference laboratory, processing samples from private healthcare providers (Mehiläinen, Terveystalo, Aava, Diacor, Dextra), public laboratory networks (Fimlab, Nordlab, Islab, Synlab), and clinical trial sponsors. The consumer-facing Hertta brand extends market reach into the Finnish preventive health segment. Geographic footprint currently spans Finland, the United States, Germany, and Switzerland.

Revenue is generated through four streams: technology licensing and royalties from diagnostic partners, reference laboratory service fees from Finnish healthcare providers, clinical trial biomarker analysis services for pharmaceutical sponsors, and diagnostic kit development. Pricing is not publicly disclosed. The company is privately held, led by CEO and co-founder Reini Hurme (PhD, eMBA) and CMO and co-founder Prof. Reijo Laaksonen, with a board chaired by Jaakko Nevanlinna. Zora is compliant with EU 2017/746 IVD regulation for in-house developed tests and holds CE-marked compliance for European market access.

Name

Zora Biosciences

Legal name

Zora Biosciences Oy

Website

https://zora.fi

Company type

Private

Founded year

2007

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Zora Biosciences Oy is a Finnish diagnostic company developing ceramide-based cardiovascular and diabetes risk tests using mass spectrometry, commercialized through reference laboratory services and licensing to Mayo Clinic and Quest Diagnostics.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Cardiovascular Diagnostics

NAICS

Medical Laboratories (621511), Research and Development in Biotechnology (except Nanobiotechnology) (541714), Medical and Diagnostic Laboratories (6215)

SIC

In Vitro & In Vivo Diagnostic Substances (2835), Services-Testing Laboratories (8734)

akta.pro primary industry

Proteomics & Biomarker Analytical Testing (HLAGADAG)

akta.pro secondary industries

Genomic & Multi-Omic Biomarkers (NGS panels, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics) (HLAAAMAJ), Bioanalytical & Biomarker CROs (PK/PD/Immunogenicity) (HLAGAAAD)

Keywords

• Ceramide diagnostics
• Cardiovascular risk testing
• Lipid biomarker assays
• Mass spectrometry diagnostics
• Diabetes risk assessment

Headquarters

HQ city

Espoo

HQ country

Finland

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Technology Licensing: Non-exclusive license agreements with major diagnostic companies for ceramide-analysis technology. Quest Diagnostics licensed the technology for cardiovascular mortality prediction test development in the United States.
2. Reference Laboratory Services: Zora analyzes samples from Finnish healthcare providers at their Espoo reference laboratory facility. Provides CERT2 and dScore measurements for clinical and research purposes.
3. Clinical Trial Services: Provides CERT2 and diabetes risk analysis for pharmaceutical clinical trials, offering risk correlation data, treatment effects analysis, and responder subgroup identification.
4. Diagnostic Kit Development: Development of diagnostic kits based on proprietary ceramide technology for broader market distribution.

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels6 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Zora Biosciences is a Finnish diagnostic company that uses mass spectrometry to quantify ceramide and phospholipid biomarkers in blood and converts them into clinical risk scores. It commercializes the CERT2 cardiovascular risk test and the dScore type 2 diabetes risk test, provides reference laboratory services from its Espoo facility, and licenses its patented ceramide-analysis technology to international diagnostic companies such as Mayo Clinic Laboratories and Quest Diagnostics.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• CERT2: Ceramide-based cardiovascular risk score for assessing risk of myocardial infarction, cardiovascular death and stroke
• dSCORE
• Hertta
• CERT

Products and services

• CERT2 Ceramide-based cardiovascular risk score that measures specific ceramides and phospholipids via mass spectrometry to predict the risk of myocardial infarction, cardiovascular death, stroke, heart failure, and major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) in both healthy individuals and patients with established cardiovascular disease.
• dScore Ceramide-based type 2 diabetes risk score that addresses ceramide-mediated insulin resistance and fat versus muscle composition to estimate the probability of developing type 2 diabetes over the next ten years.
• Hertta Consumer-facing brand for the combined cardiovascular and diabetes risk test (S-CERT in laboratory terminology), providing both heart attack risk and type 2 diabetes risk assessments from a single blood sample.
• Reference Laboratory Services Direct sample analysis services run from Zora's Espoo reference laboratory, providing CERT2 and dScore measurements to Finnish private and public healthcare providers and offering up to 12,000 samples per month of analytical capacity per machine.
• Clinical Trial Biomarker Services CERT2 and diabetes risk analysis services for pharmaceutical clinical trial sponsors, including cardiovascular risk correlation, treatment effects analysis, and responder subgroup identification, with results delivered as Excel files containing concentrations of seven molecular lipid species and tabulated risk scores.

Quantifiable outcome

• Individuals with highest ceramide levels have 3-4x greater cardiovascular event risk vs lowest scores, independent of LDL cholesterol
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers9 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability2 records

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Eleven partnerships are on record, tiered core, major and minor.

• Quest DiagnosticscoreOEM/ Whitelabel/ Licensing Partner · 15 March 2021Non-exclusive license agreement signed March 2021 for Zora's patented ceramide-analysis technology. Quest plans to develop test service for identifying cardiovascular-related disease and death risk, to be offered through Cleveland HeartLab Cardiometabolic Center of Excellence.
• CoroPreventionmajorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 12 May 2020Zora is a partner in CoroPrevention Project funded by European Commission Horizon Programme. Project aims to personalize prevention of second heart attacks and improve lifestyle of heart patients, recruiting 12,000 heart disease patients. CERT-test used for patient selection.
• Mayo Clinic Medical LaboratoriescoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 June 2016Zora and Mayo Medical Laboratories signed collaboration agreement for plasma ceramide testing in 2016. Mayo launched the test commercially as CERAM in August 2016. Mayo conducted validation studies with 499 patients demonstrating 3-4x cardiovascular event risk prediction accuracy.
• Charité – Universitätsmedizin BerlinmajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerAcademic research partnership with Prof. Dr. Ulf Landmesser, Chairman of Department of Cardiology and BIH Professor of Cardiology. Collaboration on cardiovascular research.
• University of BergenmajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerResearch collaboration with Prof. Rolf Kristian Berge at Klinisk Institutt 2 on cardiometabolic research.
• University of MilanminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerAcademic partnership with Giulia Chiesa, Assistant Professor, Department of Pharmacological Sciences, Faculty of Pharmacy.
• HUS / HYKS Sydän- ja keuhkokeskusmajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerFinnish hospital collaboration with Juha Sinisalo, Department of Cardiology, for clinical research and validation studies.
• RiskyCADmajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerEUFP7-funded research project partnership focused on risk assessment in cardiovascular disease.
• AtheroFLUXmajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerEUFP7-funded project partnership for atherosclerosis research and biomarker validation.
• Harvard Medical School / TIMI Study GroupmajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerHarvard's cardiometabolic research center analyzing ceramide and cardiovascular death associations as part of major landmark cardiovascular trials. Validates Zora's Hertta/CERT test technology.
• Stephen Kopecky, MD (Mayo Clinic)minorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorMayo Clinic cardiologist who uses CERT test on essentially all his patients, providing clinical validation and physician endorsement of the technology.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Singulex (now part of EMD Millipore Sigma): Developed high-sensitivity immunoassays for cardiovascular biomarkers including IL-6 and other inflammatory markers used in CV risk assessment. Comparable as a biomarker-based cardiovascular risk diagnostics company with proprietary measurement technology serving pharma clinical trials and clinical labs.
• Cleveland HeartLab: Specialty cardiovascular diagnostics laboratory spun out of Cleveland Clinic, now part of Quest Diagnostics' Cardiometabolic Center of Excellence. Directly comparable: focuses on novel cardiovascular biomarkers including inflammation and lipid-based markers, and is the explicit commercialization channel for Quest's ceramide test derived from Zora's technology.
• True Health Diagnostics: Specialty clinical laboratory offering advanced cardiovascular and metabolic disease diagnostics including inflammatory and lipid biomarkers. Comparable to Zora as a cardiometabolic specialty reference lab selling novel biomarker panels to clinicians for residual risk assessment.
• Health Diagnostics Laboratory (HDL): Specialty cardiovascular and metabolic disease diagnostics laboratory offering advanced lipid, inflammatory, and genetic biomarkers. Comparable to Zora as a specialty clinical lab providing cardiometabolic risk assessment panels beyond standard cholesterol testing.
• BG Medicine (galectin-3): Commercialized galectin-3 as a biomarker for heart failure risk stratification — a parallel model to Zora's ceramide-based cardiovascular risk scoring. Both target novel blood-based biomarkers for CV risk beyond traditional lipid panels, selling to clinical labs and reference lab networks.

Broad incumbents

• Quest Diagnostics: One of the largest US clinical laboratory companies and Zora's non-exclusive US licensing partner. Comparable as a broad incumbent providing full cardiometabolic diagnostic menus including the ceramide test derived from Zora's licensed technology.
• Eurofins Scientific: Large European clinical diagnostics and bioanalytical services group operating reference laboratories across Europe including through Synlab (a Zora Finnish partner). Comparable as a broad incumbent clinical lab group operating in Zora's European geographies and partnering with healthcare providers for advanced lipid and metabolic testing.
• LabCorp: Major US clinical laboratory network with broad cardiovascular diagnostics offering. Comparable as a large incumbent reference lab that competes with Mayo and Quest for ceramide/cardiometabolic test volume in the US clinical market.
• LipoScience (now LabCorp): Developed NMR-based lipoprotein testing (NMR LipoProfile) for advanced cardiovascular risk assessment, ultimately acquired by LabCorp. Directly comparable as a specialty lipid-based CV diagnostics company that scaled via licensing to major reference labs — a close parallel to Zora's strategic model.

Emerging players

• Metabolon: Metabolomics platform company providing biomarker discovery and clinical research services. Comparable to Zora as a metabolomics/lipidomics-based biomarker discovery and clinical testing provider serving pharma research and clinical diagnostics customers.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/zorabios

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 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 Zora Biosciences