Funding profile · Lab operations and procurement

HappiLabs

Self-funded for six years, then one Y Combinator check in 2018. No SEC Form D was ever filed. Science Exchange bought the company in March 2025 for an undisclosed price.

$150K to $168KTotal funding reported across trackers, no single figure confirmed
$120K to $150KY Combinator investment, Summer 2018 batch, amount varies by source
$20K to $48KFriends and family capital at founding, 2012, amount varies by source
0Form D filings found under the HappiLabs name in SEC EDGAR

Data as of September 25, 2026. Company-reported figures are labeled.

Rounds at a glance

When Round Amount Investors Source
2012 Friends and family $20,000 (TechCrunch) or $48,000 (Voyage Chicago) Family and friends, unnamed Conflict
Summer 2018 Y Combinator, S18 batch $120,000 (TechCrunch) to a total of $150,000 to $168,000 reported by trackers Y Combinator; PitchBook also lists Matter, the Chicago healthcare incubator Conflict
Mar 31, 2025 Acquired by Science Exchange Not disclosed Science Exchange, backed by Waud Capital Partners Company release

What the filings show

No Form D turns up in SEC EDGAR under HappiLabs, Inc. or any obvious variant of the name. That is consistent with a company that raised its first outside dollars as a Y Combinator SAFE and its founding capital as informal friends and family notes, neither of which necessarily triggers a Regulation D notice, rather than with a company that ran a priced institutional round. Science Exchange, the acquirer, is itself privately held and backed by the private equity firm Waud Capital Partners; no SEC filing discloses what it paid for HappiLabs.

Reading the filings

  1. Two founders, two different founding numbers.Tom Ruginis told TechCrunch in 2018 that HappiLabs launched in 2012 on $20,000 from friends and family. In a separate 2018 interview with Voyage Chicago, the figure given for the same round was $48,000, described as money given “with the expectation that they will lose their money.” Both accounts come from the same year and the same founder; they simply do not match.
  2. The Y Combinator check has three different price tags.TechCrunch reported a $120,000 Y Combinator investment in its August 2018 story, published while the batch was underway. Tracxn and the independent YCDB batch tracker both record $150,000 in total funding for HappiLabs. PitchBook records $168,000 in total funding across what it counts as six financing events, and is the only source to name a second investor, Matter, alongside Y Combinator. No filing exists to say which number is right.
  3. No priced round, no Form D.A company that takes a YC SAFE and never converts it, or never raises again at a price that triggers registration, can go its entire life without a Form D on record. That appears to be what happened here: one Y Combinator check in 2018, informal money before that, and nothing in EDGAR at any point in between.
  4. The acquisition carries no disclosed price.Business Wire and Science Exchange’s own release both announced the deal on March 31, 2025, without a dollar figure. PitchBook lists the deal type as a buyout or LBO but likewise gives no amount. For a company this size, that is typical: small tuck-in acquisitions rarely require public disclosure.

Commercial signals

Signal Detail Source type
Revenue “Earning $1 million in 2017,” per TechCrunch’s 2018 reporting. No later figure found. Independent
Customer count “Hired by 40 labs” (Voyage Chicago, 2018) versus “actively working with 26 labs” (TechCrunch, 2018). Conflict
Headcount 14 employees, six of them PhD virtual lab managers, per TechCrunch in 2018. Tracxn lists 11 employees as of mid-2026; PitchBook lists 22. Independent
Satisfaction score Net Promoter Score of 93 at acquisition, cited in the Science Exchange release. Not independently audited. Company-stated
Acquirer’s backer Science Exchange’s growth strategy is backed by Waud Capital Partners, a private equity firm, per the acquisition release. Company-stated

What to watch

  • Whether Science Exchange or Waud Capital Partners ever discloses the purchase price.
  • Any post-acquisition revenue or customer figures published for the combined Virtual Lab Manager business.
  • Whether the HappiLabs name persists on Science Exchange’s site, which as of September 2026 already carries Science Exchange branding.

The HappiLabs story on Healthcare DiscoveryHealthcare Discovery

Related companies

  • Science Exchange: Shared investor: Waud Capital Partners. A marketplace for ordering experiments that became procurement software for big pharma, and that sourced the laboratories for the largest public test of whether
  • HistoWiz: Also in Healthcare Services. A Brooklyn histology lab that turned its own order book into a searchable archive of digital slides
  • Serif Health: Also in Healthcare Services. A company whose whole product is the cleanup of two federal disclosure rules
  • Experiment: Also in Healthcare Services. A crowdfunding site where a graduate student can raise three thousand dollars in a month instead of waiting a year for a grant

Sources

  1. IndependentY Combinator invests in HappiLabs to help scientists shop smarterTechCrunch, Sarah Wells · Aug 14, 2018
  2. IndependentMeet Tom and Rachel Ruginis of HappiLabs in West LoopVoyage Chicago · Jan 9, 2018
  3. IndependentHappiLabs company profile, funding and investorsTracxn · accessed Sep 25, 2026
  4. IndependentHappiLabs company profile, valuation and fundingPitchBook · accessed Sep 25, 2026
  5. IndependentHappiLabs company page, S18 batch listingYCDB, The Y Combinator Database · accessed Sep 25, 2026
  6. CompanyScience Exchange Acquires HappiLabs to Expand Scientific Procurement CapabilitiesBusiness Wire · Mar 31, 2025
  7. CompanyScience Exchange acquires HappiLabs to expand scientific procurement capabilitiesScience Exchange press release · Mar 31, 2025
  8. CompanyHappiLabs: Virtual Lab Managers for scientists and biotech, research LabsY Combinator company page · accessed Sep 25, 2026

Compiled from SEC EDGAR and published reports as of September 25, 2026. No Form D was located for HappiLabs, Inc. in SEC EDGAR. Healthcare Venture Capital Fund holds no position in HappiLabs or Science Exchange. This page is not an offer to sell or a recommendation to buy any security.