Our Investment in Biobox

BioBox is building a state of the art data analytics platform for clinicians and scientists working with genomic data.

BioBox provides them with the tools to manage data, run complex computational workflows, create visually stunning plots, centralize observations and findings, compile insightful reports, and collaborate with colleagues. It is a truly all-in-one platform that allows scientists to complete their research from start to finish.

BioBox is the brainchild of a passionate and visionary team - Christopher Li, Hamza Farooq, and Julian Mazittelli, who previously worked together at SickKids hospital in Toronto. Together they realized that there is an opportunity to create a comprehensive platform for biologists who aren’t skilled in bioinformatics, but need to work daily with growing amounts of genetic information.

BioBox is a beautifully envisioned and seamlessly executed piece of software. Its core is an intelligent semantic graph that represents every key concept in genomics and biology. This architecture enables BioBox to cross link all data and information, which supports scientists in analyzing and interpreting their research. On top of this structure there is a flexible data storage layer that can store genetic information of different types as metadata.

The BioBox platform hides the complexity of computations by offering its users an intelligent set of workflows that understand how scientists want to work with and analyze specific types of data. BioBox also comes with GitHub-like tools that make it very easy to collaborate and share projects inside each lab.

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We made the investment in 2020 and BioBox has quickly ramped up their beta program with early customers. The feedback has been amazing - BioBox has built a uniquely powerful yet simple platform for the next generation of sequencing data.

We are big fans of the A16Z new podcast called Bio Eats World, and our thesis at 2048 Ventures is a play on two A16Z themes - Bio Eating the World and Software is Eating Bio. We hold a deep belief that the 21st century will be a century of biology and genomics, and we are thrilled to be the first-check investor backing this talented team.

And finally, much like there was a generation who fell in love with coding, and a generation who fell in love with data science, we believe that there is a growing generation of high school and university students who are obsessed with tinkering with genetic data and biology.

In addition to the massive opportunities in the research labs and pharma, BioBox has a unique opportunity to democratize access to genomics and empower the entire generation to learn how to work with biology, make new and exciting discoveries, unlock new treatments, cure diseases and ultimately, in decades to come, improve human life and the world around us in the most profound way yet.