Funding profile · Cancer diagnostics

Clear Gene

A Y Combinator Summer 2018 diagnostics company with one federal grant, one granted US patent and no SEC filings at all. Almost every dollar figure attached to it comes from a data vendor rather than a document.

$293,237NCI SBIR Phase I, the only federal award on record
$150KRaised to date per PitchBook, the 2018 accelerator cheque
5Deals recorded by PitchBook, three of them undisclosed
0Form D notices or any other SEC filing

Data as of September 23, 2026. Vendor-reported and company-reported figures are labeled.

Rounds at a glance

When Round Amount Investors Source
2018 Accelerator, Y Combinator Summer 2018 $150,000 Y Combinator PitchBook
Jun 7, 2019 NCI SBIR Phase I grant, R43CA233107 $293,237 National Cancer Institute NIH, USAspending
2022 Later stage venture Undisclosed Not named PitchBook
Undated Secondary transaction, private Undisclosed Not named PitchBook
2025 Later stage venture Undisclosed Not named PitchBook
Across all rounds Investor roster Not disclosed Portfolia, Asymmetry Ventures, DV Collective, Founders, Inc. and Halo Labs are five of nine investors counted PitchBook

What the filings show

Clear Gene, Inc. · SEC EDGAR · searched Sep 23, 2026

Form D
None. EDGAR company search for Clear Gene returns no matching companies.
Full text search
Zero hits for the company across Form D. Two hits across all forms, both from an unrelated 2006 filing.
Investment vehicles
No SPV or fund filing naming the company was found.
Reading
A company may raise under Section 4(a)(2) and file nothing, so silence here is not evidence that no money moved.

Clear Gene, Inc. · NCI SBIR Phase I · awarded Jun 7, 2019

Project
1R43CA233107-01A1, Molecular Analysis of Residual Breast Cancer
Amount
$293,237 in NIH RePORTER, $293,236.71 in USAspending
Period
June 7, 2019 to January 31, 2021
Principal investigator
Brandon N Steelman, title FOUNDER/CEO
Follow on
No Phase II award. No other federal grant or contract.
Registration
UEI UTAMLNZJPRA6, DUNS 078713198, San Carlos, CA 94070

Reading the filings

  1. The only number anyone can audit is the grant.$293,237 from the National Cancer Institute is the single funding figure on this company backed by a government record. Every equity number below comes from a private data vendor, and none of it can be checked against a document.
  2. PitchBook does not agree with itself.It lists five deals, including later stage venture rounds recorded in 2022 and 2025 and a private secondary, yet still reports raised to date as $150K. Undisclosed rounds do not roll into that total, so the figure is a floor, not a sum.
  3. Two vendors, two pictures.Tracxn records a single round, a grant dated June 7, 2019, the same day the NIH award started, and says the company has raised an undisclosed amount from three institutional investors. PitchBook counts nine investors. Neither can be reconciled against a filing.
  4. The patent is the real capital event.Clear Gene prosecuted an application filed in June 2018 to a US grant in April 2025, while keeping Australian, European and Canadian members alive. Seven years of prosecution across four jurisdictions is a sustained cash outflow, and it is the clearest sign that somebody kept funding the company after the grant period closed in January 2021.
  5. The capital is concentrated in the balance of the grant.$293,237 against a $150K reported equity base means roughly two thirds of the verifiable money was non-dilutive, and it ran out more than five years ago.
  6. Nine investors, four employees.PitchBook counts nine investors on the cap table and four employees. The ratio describes a company that has been kept alive on small cheques rather than scaled on a round.

Commercial signals

Signal Detail Source type
Regulatory No FDA 510(k), PMA, device registration, listing or emergency use authorization. Public record
Intellectual property US 12,275,994 B2 granted April 15, 2025. AU 2018428853 B2 active. EP and CA members pending. Public record
Revenue PitchBook marks every deal stage as generating revenue. No revenue figure is disclosed anywhere. Vendor-stated
Products MICA COVID kits and software sold with a European authorized representative in selected countries. The product site has not been republished since May 23, 2025. Company-stated
Headcount Four per Tracxn in August 2026 and per the YC directory. Three on the Founders, Inc. portfolio page. No open roles posted. Vendor and investor
Corporate standing California document 3692774, Delaware incorporation, active and in good standing at the July 15, 2025 registry extract. Public record

What to watch

  • A first Form D. Any priced round large enough to involve institutional counsel would normally produce one within 15 days of the first sale.
  • Maintenance fees on US 12,275,994. The first one falls due three and a half years after grant, in late 2028, and paying it is a cheap signal that somebody still wants the asset.
  • A new NIH application. A Phase II filed against a seven year old Phase I would be unusual, but a fresh Phase I would not be.
  • Whether the MICA line is formally retired or quietly kept on the shelf.

The Clear Gene story on Healthcare DiscoveryHealthcare Discovery

Related companies

  • Rejuvenation Technologies: Shared investor: Asymmetry Ventures. A Stanford spinout that switches telomerase on for a day or two with modified mRNA, then lets it fade
  • Epinoma: Shared investor: Asymmetry Ventures. A four-person startup selling EpiAmp, a chemistry that copies DNA while keeping its methylation marks
  • Revolve Surgical: Shared investor: Asymmetry Ventures. A Toronto company building a laparoscopic robot that clamps to the operating table instead of filling the room
  • Persist AI: Shared investor: Asymmetry Ventures. A robotic laboratory in West Sacramento that builds and tests long acting injectable formulations by the hundred, rented to drug companies through a web browser

Sources

  1. Public recordNIH RePORTER project 1R43CA233107-01A1NCI · FY2019
  2. Public recordUSAspending.gov award R43CA233107HHS · queried Sep 23, 2026
  3. Public recordSEC EDGAR company search and full text search for Clear GeneSEC · Sep 23, 2026
  4. Public recordUS patent 12,275,994 B2 and its familyUSPTO and EPO · granted Apr 15, 2025
  5. Public recordCalifornia Secretary of State registry, document 3692774Extract dated Jul 15, 2025
  6. IndependentClear Gene company profile, deal history, investors and patentsPitchBook · accessed Sep 23, 2026
  7. IndependentClear Gene company profile and funding historyTracxn · accessed Sep 23, 2026
  8. IndependentClear Gene portfolio pageFounders, Inc. · accessed Sep 2026
  9. CompanyClear Gene website and jobs pageAccessed Sep 23, 2026
  10. CompanyMICA product pagesmicatest.com · accessed Sep 23, 2026
  11. CompanyClear Gene directory entry, Summer 2018 batchY Combinator · accessed Sep 23, 2026

Compiled from SEC, NIH, USAspending, USPTO, FDA and California public records and published reports as of September 23, 2026. Form D notices report offerings under Regulation D; no such notice exists for this company, and companies that raise under Section 4(a)(2) file none. Healthcare Venture Capital Fund holds no position in Clear Gene. This page is not an offer to sell or a recommendation to buy any security.