• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

MacKenzie Scott alone accounted for one-third of America's $19.2 billion in megagifts last year

2

Philanthropy leader at Warren Buffett and Bill Gates’ Giving Pledge says children of billionaires are pushing them to give their wealth away faster

3

Elon Musk on MacKenzie Scott giving away $26 billion of her fortune: 'Sadly,' it makes the world a worse place

1

MacKenzie Scott alone accounted for one-third of America's $19.2 billion in megagifts last year

2

Philanthropy leader at Warren Buffett and Bill Gates’ Giving Pledge says children of billionaires are pushing them to give their wealth away faster

3

Elon Musk on MacKenzie Scott giving away $26 billion of her fortune: 'Sadly,' it makes the world a worse place

Genetic testing company Recombine raises $3.3 million from FirstMark Capital

By
Erin Griffith
Erin Griffith
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Erin Griffith
Erin Griffith
Down Arrow Button Icon
March 4, 2014, 4:00 PM ET
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

FORTUNE — FirstMark Capital is known for investing in consumer-facing software companies like Pinterest, Riot Games, and Aereo, as well as enterprise deals. But since Matt Turck, a former investor with Bloomberg Ventures, joined the firm one year ago, he’s been looking at deals that are more out-there, related to big data and the Internet of Things. Take, for example, his latest investment: Recombine, a bioinformatics company.

FirstMark has invested $3.3 million in the New York-based startup. Other investors who participated in the round include new early-stage firm Vast Ventures, Vivek Garipalli, formerly of Blackstone Group (BX), as well as Alexander Saint-Amand, President and CEO of Gerson Lehrman Group, and Zach Weinberg and Nat Turner, who co-founded health care startup Flatiron Health.

Currently, Recombine provides clinical genetic testing services which are faster and cheaper than those offered by LabCo Diagnostic Network and Quest Diagnostics (DGX), the incumbent providers. Those companies’ technology, much of which was created in the 1970s, requires a separate test (and separate blood samples) to test for each individual disease, and it costs up to $1,000 for each test. Recombine tests for 213 genetic disorders at once, costing $500 before insurance.

MORE: Apple’s CFO says see you in Sept., after 100,000 shares vest

Recombine CEO Alexander Bisignano says the incumbent services use older technology and aren’t incentivized to upgrade because they have exclusive contracts with insurance companies. “It is sort of a monopoly,” he says. Recombine’s services are in use at 60 different medical practices.

But disrupting the medical lab industry is not Recombine’s ultimate goal. The company has its sights on something it believes is much more lucrative: big data for genetics. That’s where Recombine fits into FirstMark’s investment thesis. More than a biotech company, it’s a big data company, Turck argues. From his blog post Tuesday:

Recombine has ambitious plans to fully leverage Big Data technology to help decode the myriad aspects of our genome that are still not well understood.

Naturally, Bisignano agrees. “Genetics is entering a future where it is nothing but a data science,” he says.

By processing all of the data from its tests, Recombine can glean insights about genes and diseases. The data is anonymous, and Recombine has already obtained Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval to conduct its first large-scale study. “We’re getting really high-quality medical data that allows us to be more confident that the signal is outweighing the noise in our results,” Bisignano says.

Recombine purposely avoided the direct-to-consumer market, where the best-known company, 23andMe, garnered the attention of the FDA and was briefly shut down last year. Bisignano says that 23andMe has done a great job of bringing awareness to genetic testing, and the company, backed by $188 million in venture funding, is doing good research to advance the technology around genetic testing. But 23andMe’s mission is slightly different than Recombine’s: 23andMe wants to empower people with more information about their genomes.

MORE: America’s painful doctor shortage is threatening healthcare reform

But Bisignano says that this information isn’t always that useful to people. “The average person’s ability to understand their genetic data is not as high as we’d like to believe,” he says. That’s why Recombine has employed six full-time genetic counselors and works directly with doctors to help patients understand their test results.

In general, our understanding of the human genome only covers around 1.5% of its 6 billion data points, Bisignano says. Recombine hopes the infrastructure it is building can go after the other 98.5%.

The company has chosen fertility and childbirth as its first areas of focus. There are two products: CarrierMap, which determines the changes of passing on more than 200 genetic diseases to a child, and FertilityMap, which helps diagnose and treat infertility and frequent miscarriages. Launched in October, it is already a profitable multimillion dollar business for Recombine. CarrierMap was launched at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine conference in October last year, and has provided more than 7,000 tests since. The company is working with 10 of the country’s top fertility clinics for its first Clinical-Translational Study, geared at helping to better understand and predict infertility based on complex genomic influencers.

Recombine’s $3.3 million Series A funding will allow the company to build out a team of data scientists, salespeople, and engineers. To underscore that the company is focused on data, more so than biology, Bisignano is courting data crunchers from the finance world, because he wants people who understand high-frequency trading algorithms. “We’re looking at people who specialize in data outside of genetics,” he says.

About the Author
By Erin Griffith
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Latest in

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in

The Supreme Court’s birthright citizenship ruling hands the U.S. economy a $7.7 trillion win
NewslettersCEO Daily
The Supreme Court’s birthright citizenship ruling hands the U.S. economy a $7.7 trillion win
By Diane BradyJuly 1, 2026
1 hour ago
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella on April 23, 2026 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo: George Chan/Getty Images)
NewslettersFortune Tech
Microsoft may cut thousands more jobs in a bid to control costs
By Andrew NuscaJuly 1, 2026
1 hour ago
Current refi mortgage rates report for July 1, 2026
Personal FinanceReal Estate
Current refi mortgage rates report for July 1, 2026
By Glen Luke FlanaganJuly 1, 2026
3 hours ago
Current ARM mortgage rates report for July 1, 2026
Personal FinanceReal Estate
Current ARM mortgage rates report for July 1, 2026
By Glen Luke FlanaganJuly 1, 2026
3 hours ago
Mortgage rates today, July 1, 2026
Personal Financemortgages
Mortgage rates today, July 1, 2026
By Glen Luke FlanaganJuly 1, 2026
3 hours ago
As Big Tech showers employees with perks to win the talent war, Nvidia built a nearly $5 trillion company by making people pay for their own lunch
Big TechNvidia
As Big Tech showers employees with perks to win the talent war, Nvidia built a nearly $5 trillion company by making people pay for their own lunch
By Marco Quiroz-GutierrezJuly 1, 2026
3 hours ago

Most Popular

MacKenzie Scott alone accounted for one-third of America's $19.2 billion in megagifts last year
Success
MacKenzie Scott alone accounted for one-third of America's $19.2 billion in megagifts last year
By Sydney LakeJune 25, 2026
6 days ago
Philanthropy leader at Warren Buffett and Bill Gates’ Giving Pledge says children of billionaires are pushing them to give their wealth away faster
Success
Philanthropy leader at Warren Buffett and Bill Gates’ Giving Pledge says children of billionaires are pushing them to give their wealth away faster
By Preston ForeJune 27, 2026
4 days ago
Elon Musk on MacKenzie Scott giving away $26 billion of her fortune: 'Sadly,' it makes the world a worse place
Success
Elon Musk on MacKenzie Scott giving away $26 billion of her fortune: 'Sadly,' it makes the world a worse place
By Sydney LakeJune 29, 2026
2 days ago
'Humanity has chosen to become idiots': This Brown professor switched to take-home exams after a mass shooting and discovered mass cheating
AI
'Humanity has chosen to become idiots': This Brown professor switched to take-home exams after a mass shooting and discovered mass cheating
By Catherina GioinoJune 29, 2026
2 days ago
The U.S. Army is opening military bases to private billions — here's why that changes everything for the next 250 years
Commentary
The U.S. Army is opening military bases to private billions — here's why that changes everything for the next 250 years
By Marc AndersenJune 30, 2026
23 hours ago
The retired college professor fighting a $313 trespassing ticket in Wisconsin thinks he's part of a national struggle
Environment
The retired college professor fighting a $313 trespassing ticket in Wisconsin thinks he's part of a national struggle
By Catherina GioinoJune 28, 2026
3 days ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.