Who founded BioRender?

BioRender was founded by Ryan Marien, Katya Shteyn, Shiz Aoki in 2018.

Who are BioRender's investors?

BioRender's investors include Y Combinator, Fifty Years, FundersClub, Standard Capital, Refactor Capital, Zeno Ventures.

Where is BioRender headquartered?

BioRender is headquartered in Toronto, CA.

BioRender

YC W18

Toronto, CA · Founded 2018 · 205 employees · Hiring · 7 known investors

BioRender is a software tool that enables scientists to create and share professional scientific illustrations and figures. The platform serves researchers and scientists across life sciences disciplines globally.

Also known as BioRender.io

Biotech EdTech Enterprise Software SaaS Collaboration Design ToolsCanadaAmerica / CanadaFully Remote

Founders & leadership· Y Combinator alumni (W18)

BioRender was founded in 2018 by Ryan Marien, Katya Shteyn, and Shiz Aoki.

Ryan Marien inCo-founderRyan Marien is a co-founder of BioRender, a life sciences visualization platform that enables scientists to create medical illustrations. He founded the company in 2017 alongside Shiz Aoki and Katya Shteyn.

Katya Shteyn inFounderKatya Shteyn is co-founder of BioRender, a platform for scientific visualization founded in 2017 alongside Shiz Aoki and Ryan Marien to enable researchers to create medical illustrations.

Shiz AokiinCEO and Co-founder

Investors · 7

Y Combinator✓ verifiedSan Francisco · $500K

Fifty YearsSan Francisco · $250K – $2M

FundersClubSan Francisco · $250K – $5M

Standard CapitalSan Francisco

Refactor CapitalreportedBurlingame · $1M – $2M

Zeno VenturesreportedGeneva

Also in the syndicate · 1

YCombinator

Funding

SEC filings, press & company announcements

Undisclosed amountSeedFeb 2026
YCombinator
Source ↗

Source: company announcements and press reports — follow each round's link for the claim.

The YC application· Winter 2018 batch

BioRender YC Demo Day (W18) - Figma/Canva for scientists

Startup Pitches

Alumni Q&A

How did your company get started? (i.e., How did the founders meet? How did you come up with the idea? How did you decide to be a founder?): CEO and co-founder Shiz Aoki spent a decade as lead medical illustrator at National Geographic before starting a medical illustration firm in Toronto, where she noticed rising demand from scientists who needed help visualizing their work and often lacked the resources to hire illustrators. In 2017 she teamed up with Katya Shteyn and Ryan Marien to found BioRender. The company went through Y Combinator, has users in over 100 countries, and offers a library of icons and templates spanning more than 30 fields of biology.

Summarized from the founders' answers on their Y Combinator profile.

Images

Founder mafia

2 people who came through BioRender went on to found or lead other companies.

Ivan PushkarskyStaff Product ManagerFounded Forcyte Biotechnologies Ralph RouhanaSoftware EngineerFounded Stempad

Competitors · 2

by search overlap

Canva1508 shared keywordsDesign platform; Blackbird invested when it was just an idea and in every round since.

The Noun Project1432 shared keywordsNoun Project operates an online library of nearly 10 million vector icons and high-resolution stock photos, offering SVG and PNG assets plus an icon API for use in presentations, websites, apps, and other design projects. It serves designers, businesses, educators, and app developers with royalty-free licensed graphics and AI-enhanced search.

Companies competing with BioRender for the same Google search keywords, organic and paid, via search-intersection analysis.

In the news

BioRender Secures $1.0B Seed Funding | Signalbasetrysignalbase.com · Feb 2026

Sidley Represents BioRender in Investment Valuing Company at $900 Million | News | Sidley Austin LLPsidley.com · Jan 2026

Frequently asked questions

What does BioRender do?: BioRender is a software tool that enables scientists to create and share professional scientific illustrations and figures. The platform serves researchers and scientists across life sciences disciplines globally.
Who founded BioRender?: BioRender was founded by Ryan Marien, Katya Shteyn, Shiz Aoki in 2018.
Who are BioRender's investors?: BioRender's investors include Y Combinator, Fifty Years, FundersClub, Standard Capital, Refactor Capital, Zeno Ventures.
Where is BioRender headquartered?: BioRender is headquartered in Toronto, CA.