Volta Labs, Inc.
YC W19Boston, US · Founded 2018 · Delaware corporation · 50 employees · Hiring · 4 known investors
Volta develops a hardware and software platform for genomics sample preparation that automates the extraction of biological information. The company serves researchers, laboratories, and healthcare organizations working in genomics, disease control, forensic science, and medicine.
Also known as Volta Labs Inc.
AI & Machine LearningBiotechDeep TechHardwareHealthtechMedical DevicesRoboticsHard TechGenomicsBiotechnologyUnited States of AmericaAmerica / Canada
Founders & leadership· Y Combinator alumni (W19)
Volta Labs, Inc. was founded in 2018 by Udayan Umapathi.
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Udayan Umapathiin𝕏Founder and CEOHe has over five years of experience in company creation and scaling, with background knowledge spanning engineering, design, and biology.
Board
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Natan LinderBoard director
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David SingerBoard director
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Maxim LobovskyBoard director
Investors · 4
Reported raises · per SEC filings
Form D private placements$37.7M disclosed across 2 rounds · 2022–2023
▶$12.7MraisedMar 2024 · 15 investors · Other TechnologyRule 506(b)
▶$12.7MraisedMar 2024 · 15 investors · Other Technology
Rule 506(b)Officers, directors & promoters on the filing
- David SingerDirector
- Natan LinderDirector
- Udayan UmapathiExecutive Officer, Director
- Offering amount
- $20M
- Amount sold
- $12.7M
- First sale
- Dec 2023
- Incorporated
- Corporation, Delaware
- Federal exemptions
- 06b
▶$25MraisedMar 2022 · 24 investors · Other TechnologyRule 506(b)
▶$25MraisedMar 2022 · 24 investors · Other Technology
Rule 506(b)Officers, directors & promoters on the filing
- Udayan UmapathiExecutive Officer, Director, Promoter
- Natan LinderDirector
- Will LangfordPromoter
- David SingerDirector
- Maxim LobovskyDirector
- Offering amount
- $25M
- Amount sold
- $25M
- First sale
- Jan 2022
- Incorporated
- Corporation, Delaware, 2018
- Federal exemptions
- 06b
Source: SEC EDGAR Form D. Amounts as filed; amended filings shown once at their latest values.
The YC application· Winter 2019 batch
What they told YC
- Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.
- The founders describe the company as building integrated circuits for biology workflows.
- What is your company going to make? Please describe your product and what it does or will do.
- The company is building a high-throughput automation system for Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) sample preparation based on digital microfluidic chip technology.
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?)
- Volta Labs started at MIT in 2018, based near Kendall Square, after the founders found through research and conversations with scientists that sample preparation lagged behind advances in DNA readout technologies. The work grew out of founder Udayan Umapathi's graduate research at the MIT Media Lab, where a printed circuit board for manipulating droplets developed into an approach to the sample prep bottleneck; the company then raised venture funding.
- What's the history of your company from getting started until the present day? What were the big inflection points?
- After going through YC in Winter 2019 and raising funding, the company has focused on developing fluidic and sample manipulation technologies, combining instrumentation, fluidics, software, biology, and chemistry. Its current focus is sequencing sample prep, with a longer-term aim of a single machine to automate biological workflows across genomics, proteomics, and synthetic biology.
- What is the core problem you are solving? Why is this a big problem? What made you decide to work on it?
- The founders point to the falling cost of DNA sequencing, from roughly $300 million for the first draft human genome around 1999-2000 to hundreds of dollars in a day by 2023, while sample preparation for sequencing remains a bottleneck. They decided to work on sample prep because it represents a growing burden on labs as sequencing costs drop toward the $200 genome.
Summarized from the founders' answers on their Y Combinator profile.
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Competitors · 1
by search overlapCompanies competing with Volta Labs, Inc. for the same Google search keywords, organic and paid, via search-intersection analysis.
In the news
Frequently asked questions
- What does Volta Labs, Inc. do?
- Volta develops a hardware and software platform for genomics sample preparation that automates the extraction of biological information. The company serves researchers, laboratories, and healthcare organizations working in genomics, disease control, forensic science, and medicine.
- Who founded Volta Labs, Inc.?
- Volta Labs, Inc. was founded by Udayan Umapathi in 2018.
- Who are Volta Labs, Inc.'s investors?
- Volta Labs, Inc.'s investors include Blindspot Ventures Management Co, The E14 Fund, Y Combinator, Village Global.
- How much funding has Volta Labs, Inc. raised?
- Volta Labs, Inc. has disclosed $37.7M raised across 2 rounds.
- Where is Volta Labs, Inc. headquartered?
- Volta Labs, Inc. is headquartered in Boston, US.