BillionToOne’s Oguzhan Atay
Duy Ho Images
BillionToOne’s shares soared on its first day of buying and selling, giving the corporate a market cap of $5.8 billion.
Oguzhan Atay, a Turkish immigrant with a Ph.D. in methods biology from Stanford College, began BillionToOne in 2016 with the thought of making noninvasive prenatal genetic checks for frequent ailments, like sickle cell anemia and cystic fibrosis. At the moment, the Menlo Park, California-based firm went public on the Nasdaq inventory alternate, raising $273 million, in an providing that was upsized to satisfy investor demand. By the top of buying and selling, its shares had been up greater than 80%, at $109 from the providing worth of $60, giving it a market cap of $5.8 billion.
That makes BilliontoOne the uncommon medical diagnostics firm to have a profitable IPO this 12 months, much more uncommon given the federal authorities shutdown.
However BillionToOne, which began with prenatal blood checks and expanded to most cancers testing, has constructed a major, fast-growing enterprise. It booked $209 million in latest 12-month revenue (by way of June 30) from 508,000 genetic checks, in response to its providing doc. That compares with final 12 months’s income of $153 million, itself up 19-fold from $8 million in 2021. Whereas the corporate is dropping cash, these losses have been shrinking, to only $4 million within the first half of 2025.
At a worth of $109 a share, Atay’s stake within the enterprise (together with shares and vested choices) can be price $335 million. His cofounder, David Tsao, the corporate’s chief expertise officer, holds a roughly related stake, price practically $325 million.
“Now we have blown previous each projection we had on the time,” Atay, the corporate’s cofounder and CEO, advised Forbes. “We’re not attempting to alter the market or persuade Congress to alter reimbursement. We’re taking threat on the technical [side], to do one thing that isn’t simply 5% higher.”
Early detection of most cancers is “the place a whole lot of the joy for our firm lies.”
Its patented expertise can detect a single DNA letter of a single DNA molecule out of a complete of three billion in a human genome (thus the corporate’s title)—serving to it decide if a creating child was susceptible to critical illness from one maternal blood pattern. Blood checks are far much less invasive than conventional checks like amniocentesis through which medical doctors draw amniotic fluid to check for genetic issues.
Atay, 37, and Tsao, 36, began with two frequent genetic blood issues: sickle cell and beta-thalassemia. In 2023, they expanded into most cancers testing, starting with checks for individuals who have already got most cancers. BillionToOne is constant to work on new diagnostic merchandise in oncology, together with people who may very well be utilized in early detection of most cancers, one of many holy grails of testing.
Nonetheless, diagnostics is a tough and capital-intensive space, and massive testing corporations like $27 billion (market cap) Natera have been round for many years. “At first it was very troublesome,” Atay mentioned, noting that BillionToOne was not solely unknown to medical doctors, however was additionally out-of-network for insurers. “We had been outspent and outnumbered in each area we had been in,” he mentioned. To amass clients in the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, he scheduled conferences with physicians of their parking heaps, bringing masks that he had special-ordered from abroad with him. At the moment, BillionToOne is in-network with 70% of insurers, Atay mentioned.
“He’s humble, however he’s a beast,” mentioned Shahram Seyedin-Noor, managing associate of Civilization Ventures, a healthcare-focused funding agency that was considered one of BillionToOne’s first traders.
For the most recent healthcare information, join Forbes’ InnovationRx newsletter.
BillionToOne raised its first $15 million in March 2019. It has since raised practically $375 million from traders that embody Norwest and Baillie Gifford. The corporate didn’t want the capital from right this moment’s public providing, however selected to go public to deliver on institutional traders, Atay mentioned.
At the moment, BillionToOne tasks in its providing doc that the marketplace for its current genetic checks is price greater than $20 billion, whereas its pipeline of merchandise in growth might enhance that to $100 billion. Whereas prenatal checks are a giant deal, early detection of most cancers may very well be even bigger. “That’s the place a whole lot of the joy for our firm lies,” Atay mentioned.
MORE FROM FORBES
