Karius

Company research

Public company, workplace, funding, and market signals

Updated Aug 16, 2026

Overview

Karius is a clinical metagenomics / infectious disease diagnostics company that uses microbial cell-free DNA and next-generation sequencing to help clinicians identify infections faster and more precisely.

Primary product

Karius Test (metagenomic infectious disease blood test)

Founded

2014

Headquarters

Redwood City, California, United States

Team size

100-150

Industry

Biotechnology Research

Sub-industry

Clinical metagenomics / infectious disease diagnostics

Offices

Redwood City, California, United States

Business model

B2B diagnostics

Clinical laboratory testing services

Hospital and health system sales

Funding

Stage

Series C

Total raised

$354M

Latest round

Series C · May 2024

Latest amount

$100M

Series C

May 2024 · Khosla Ventures; 5AM Ventures; Gilde Healthcare

$100M

Series B

Mar 2022

Debt Financing

Nov 2018 · Oxford Finance LLC

$25M

Series A

Aug 2017 · Data Collective (DCVC) and Lightspeed Venture Partners

$50M

Seed Round

Sep 2014 · DCVC

$5M

People & investors

Leadership

Alec Ford

Chief Executive Officer

Brad Perkins

Chief Medical Officer

Mickey Kertesz

President, CPO & Co-Founder

Stacy Aurora

Chief People Officer

Brian Strike

Vice President of Sales & Medical Science Liaisons

Founders

Stephen Quake, PhD

Scientific co-founder

Tim Blauwkamp, PhD

Co-founder; Chief Scientific Officer

Investors

5AM Ventures

Blue Water Life Sciences

DCVC

DCVC (Data Collective)

General Catalyst

Gilde Healthcare

HBM Healthcare Investments

Innovation Endeavors

Khosla Ventures

Lightspeed Venture Partners

Oxford Finance LLC

Seventure Partners

SoftBank Vision Fund 2

Spectrum 28

Tencent

Waycross Ventures

Work & culture

Public sources indicate a mission-driven, growth-oriented company with a distributed workforce across the U.S., Canada, and Germany. Employee review signals suggest compensation is relatively strong, with middling culture scores.

Compensation

Public signals are limited. Employee review data shows compensation rated 3.9/5.0 on one employer-rating source, suggesting generally positive pay sentiment, but no verified salary bands were found.

Product & market

Pricing

Laboratory-developed test / clinical diagnostic service pricing, typically sold through hospitals, health systems, and physicians; public price cards were not found.

Differentiators

—Detects more than 1,000 pathogens from a single blood sample
—Microbial cell-free DNA and NGS-based approach
—Earlier, broader infection detection than many conventional tests
—Used in complex, immunocompromised patient populations
—FDA Breakthrough Device Designation for the Karius Test

Technology

jest

rds

salesforce

cython

postgresql

graphql

playwright

kubernetes

iam

microservices

jupyter

medrio

typescript

sqlite

confluent

pcr

duo

sql

python

grand rounds","selenium","docker","nextflow","grafana","prometheus","figma","netsuite","pytest","dbt","github","jira","postman","git","tableau","databricks","snowflake","github actions","elk","swift","terraform","looker

Customers

Hospitals

Health systems

Cancer centers

Academic medical centers

Physicians caring for immunocompromised patients

Competitors

IDbyDNA (Illumina-acquired)

CosmosID

Noscendo

Day Zero Diagnostics

ArcBio

bioMérieux

Scale & contact

Estimated revenue

$10M-$20M

Estimated monthly visits

11.7K

Traffic estimate as of Jun 2026

Latest news

Karius snares FDA breakthrough tag for genomic infectious disease blood test

Fierce Biotech · May 2024

Karius received FDA Breakthrough Device Designation for the Karius Test, a key regulatory milestone.

Karius raises $100M to expand access to multi-pathogen blood test

MedTech Dive · May 2024

Karius raised $100M in Series C to expand use of its microbial DNA blood test beyond hospitals and support research into applications beyond infectious diseases.

Infectious disease DNA tester Karius nets $100M

Fierce Biotech · May 2024

Coverage noted the test’s use at about 400 U.S. locations and described the round as a push toward broader commercialization.

Karius nets $165M from SoftBank and more to power its infection genomics test

Fierce Biotech · Feb 2020

Karius raised $165M in Series B led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, with backers including General Catalyst, HBM Healthcare Investments, Khosla Ventures, and LightSpeed Venture Partners.

Karius announced on LinkedIn the hiring of new sales/leadership roles and continued growth

Recent company posts indicate ongoing hiring and organizational growth, including commercial leadership additions.

About About Us Careers Careers Contact Contact FDA Breakthrough Device Designation article GitHub Homepage Karius LinkedIn profile for CEO Alec Ford

SourcesKarius homepage / company profile Karius LinkedIn company page Karius Series C coverage (MedTech Dive)Karius FDA breakthrough coverage (Fierce Biotech)Karius Series B coverage (Fierce Biotech)

Jobs and careers at Karius

19 jobs at Karius

Clinical Sales Manager (New York)

Remote

Commercial

New York City, NY

1d ago

Remote

Full-time