BostonGene reaches unicorn status - $1B+ valuation, 2022 Tumor Portrait reads DNA, RNA, immune & microenvironment in one test AstraZeneca & MD Anderson co-develop small cell lung cancer assay Frost & Sullivan names BostonGene a 2025 precision-oncology leader NEC global partnership expands Tumor Portrait across Asia BostonGene reaches unicorn status - $1B+ valuation, 2022 Tumor Portrait reads DNA, RNA, immune & microenvironment in one test AstraZeneca & MD Anderson co-develop small cell lung cancer assay Frost & Sullivan names BostonGene a 2025 precision-oncology leader NEC global partnership expands Tumor Portrait across Asia
Company Dossier  |  Precision Oncology  |  Waltham, MA

BostonGene

Biologically grounded AI that reads the whole biology of a tumor - and turns it into a treatment decision.

Founded2015
Team~420
Valuation$1B+
StageSeries B
BostonGene company logo
THE SUBJECT. BostonGene Corporation, headquartered at 95 Sawyer Road, Waltham, Massachusetts - where oncologists, computational biologists and engineers turn sequencing data into cancer treatment roadmaps.
The Story

Reading the tumor's whole personality

Two patients can share the same diagnosis and carry completely different tumors. BostonGene was built around that inconvenient fact - and around the idea that the biology hiding inside a tumor should shape the treatment, not just the label on the chart.

Founded in 2015 in Waltham, Massachusetts, BostonGene is a biotechnology company that applies computational biology and artificial intelligence to cancer. Its flagship, the Tumor Portrait test, folds DNA and RNA sequencing, tumor mutational burden, PD-L1 expression, gene signatures and tumor-microenvironment subtyping into a single, end-to-end assay. The company describes it, plainly, as a tumor "personality" test.

The point of that framing is not marketing. Most genomic cancer tests read mutations - the things that are broken in a tumor's DNA. BostonGene reads those too, but it also reads the RNA that shows which genes are actually switched on, and it profiles the immune cells and microenvironment surrounding the tumor. That surrounding biology often decides whether a therapy can even reach its target.

The result is a report meant to be acted on. Rather than handing an oncologist a raw list of variants, the platform produces a roadmap: which biomarkers are present, how the immune landscape looks, and which therapies the biology points toward for a patient with an advanced solid tumor.

The same engine runs in the other direction for drug developers. Pharmaceutical partners use BostonGene's molecular and immune profiling to find biomarkers, select the right patients for trials, and stratify populations - the unglamorous work that separates a trial that reads out cleanly from one that fails on the wrong cohort.

"Biologically grounded AI for drug development and precision clinical decision-making."
2015
Year Founded
~420
Employees
$1B+
Valuation (2022)
1
Test, Many Layers
Products & Services

What's in the toolkit

BostonGene sells to two audiences at once: oncology providers who order tests for patients, and pharmaceutical companies that use the platform to build better drugs. The building blocks are shared.

2020Flagship

Tumor Portrait Test

A tumor-normal assay integrating DNA and RNA sequencing with tumor mutational burden, PD-L1, gene signatures and microenvironment subtyping - a multimodal view of each tumor in one test.

2016Platform

Multiomics Analytics

The AI engine that decodes a patient's molecular profile, immune system and tumor microenvironment to surface disease drivers and potential drug targets.

2019Biopharma

Drug Development Services

Biomarker discovery, patient stratification and clinical-trial optimization for pharma partners, built on the same profiling stack.

2018Lab

Digital Pathology & Immune Profiling

Multiplex immunofluorescence imaging, flow cytometry and spatial analysis characterizing the tumor immune microenvironment.

The Problem It Solves

Cancer is a moving target

Oncology has more therapies than ever - targeted drugs, immunotherapies, combinations. The hard part is matching them to the right patient. Guess wrong and a patient loses time they may not have.

BostonGene's answer is comprehensiveness. By profiling genome, transcriptome, immune cells and microenvironment together, it aims to close the gap between knowing what a tumor is and knowing what to do about it. For drug developers, the same completeness attacks the industry's most expensive failure mode: trials that enroll the wrong patients and read out inconclusive.

Mutations tell you what's broken. The microenvironment tells you whether a therapy will even get there.
Where It Fits

A crowded field, a specific niche

Precision oncology is competitive - Tempus AI, Caris Life Sciences, Foundation Medicine, Guardant Health, SOPHiA GENETICS and Personalis all work adjacent ground. BostonGene's edge is not more sequencing volume; it is the interpretive layer on top, and specifically its focus on the immune microenvironment that many genomics-first players treat as secondary.

What BostonGene emphasizes

  • DNA + RNA in a single multimodal assay
  • Tumor microenvironment & immune subtyping
  • Reports framed as treatment roadmaps
  • Biologically grounded AI, tied to real biology
  • Dual use: clinical care + drug development

The alternatives

  • Tempus AI - data-scale molecular + clinical
  • Caris Life Sciences - comprehensive profiling
  • Foundation Medicine (Roche) - genomic profiling
  • Guardant Health - liquid biopsy
  • SOPHiA GENETICS, Personalis - analytics & NGS
Business Model

Two revenue engines

BostonGene operates a B2B2C model. On the clinical side, oncologists and health systems order the Tumor Portrait test for patients with advanced solid tumors, generating diagnostic testing revenue. On the research side, pharmaceutical and biotech companies pay for molecular and immune profiling, biomarker discovery and trial services. The two feed each other - clinical data sharpens the platform, and the platform makes the clinical product more useful. Apollo estimates annual revenue near $63M.

The Tumor Portrait test serves as a roadmap to guide treatment decision-making - a tumor "personality" test.
BostonGene's platform combines deep biological insights with advanced AI to enable better therapeutic design and patient selection.
Funding

From startup to unicorn

BostonGene has raised capital across a strategic investment and two priced rounds, reaching a valuation above $1 billion in 2022. Bars scaled to round size.

NEC Strategic '19
$50M
Series A '20
$150M
Series B '22
$150M

Lead investors: SoftBank Vision Fund 2 (Series A); NEC Corporation, Impact Investment Capital, Japan Industrial Partners (Series B).

Timeline

The road so far

2015

BostonGene founded

Andrew Feinberg co-founds the company in Waltham, Massachusetts to apply computational biology to cancer.

2019

NEC invests, CEO named

NEC puts in $50M and forms a research collaboration; Andrew Feinberg becomes President & CEO.

2020

$150M Series A

SoftBank Vision Fund 2 leads the company's Series A financing.

2021

Global NEC partnership

BostonGene and NEC announce a partnership to offer Tumor Portrait tests internationally.

2022

Unicorn status

A $150M Series B led by NEC values the company at over $1 billion.

2024

Assay validation published

A landmark study provides clinical and analytical validation for the multimodal RNA and DNA assay.

2025

Pharma deals & recognition

Collaborations with AstraZeneca and Ottimo Pharma; Frost & Sullivan innovation recognition in AI-driven precision oncology.

Partnerships

Who's in the room

The names that trust BostonGene with tumor data say as much as any pitch deck.

Investor + JV

NEC Corporation

Early $50M strategic backer and global partner; joint venture to bring Tumor Portrait to Japan and other Asian markets.

Pharma

AstraZeneca

Strategic collaboration on foundation-model-driven oncology and a co-developed small cell lung cancer assay.

Academic

MD Anderson

Co-developed a small cell lung cancer assay now in a national study and on track toward standard of care.

Pharma

Ottimo Pharma

Collaboration to accelerate a first-in-class PD-1/VEGFR2 immuno-oncology therapy using AI.

Leadership

The person at the top

Andrew Feinberg - Co-founder, President & CEO

Feinberg co-founded BostonGene in 2015 and stepped into the President & CEO role in 2019, the same year NEC's strategic investment arrived. He has led the company through its Series A and B rounds, its climb to unicorn valuation, and its expansion into pharma collaborations with AstraZeneca, MD Anderson and others.

Questions

Frequently asked

What does BostonGene do?

It provides AI-driven molecular and immune profiling of tumors. Its Tumor Portrait test integrates DNA and RNA sequencing with tumor microenvironment analysis to guide cancer treatment decisions and support drug development.

Who founded BostonGene and who runs it?

BostonGene was co-founded in 2015 and is led by Andrew Feinberg, its President & CEO since 2019.

What is the Tumor Portrait test?

A single tumor-normal assay combining genomic and transcriptomic sequencing, biomarkers like tumor mutational burden and PD-L1, and tumor microenvironment subtyping to help oncologists choose therapies for advanced solid tumors.

How much funding has BostonGene raised?

A $50M strategic investment from NEC in 2019, a $150M Series A led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 in 2020, and a $150M Series B in 2022 that valued it over $1 billion.

Who are BostonGene's competitors?

Its main competitors in precision oncology and molecular diagnostics include Tempus AI, Caris Life Sciences, Foundation Medicine, Guardant Health, SOPHiA GENETICS and Personalis.

Watch

Interviews & demos

Explore BostonGene's own channel for platform demos, science explainers and leadership interviews.

Connect

Find BostonGene

Sources: bostongene.com, GenomeWeb, BusinessWire, NEC press releases, Frost & Sullivan, Tracxn, StartupTalky. Figures including revenue (~$63M) and employee count (~420) are third-party estimates and approximate. Funding: NEC strategic ($50M, 2019), Series A ($150M, 2020), Series B ($150M, 2022).