Clear Labs

Clear Labs is a genomics company founded in 2014 by Sasan Amini and based in San Carlos, California, that built an automated next-generation sequencing platform originally aimed at clinical diagnostics and later applied to foodborne-pathogen detection.

Its Clear Safety product runs robotic sample preparation and automated bioinformatics to serotype Salmonella and monitor Listeria persistence in processing facilities, giving food manufacturers and contract laboratories molecular-level pathogen characterization without requiring in-house sequencing expertise; the company has raised over $30 million in Series D funding from investors including Khosla Ventures.

1. Automated NGS workflow: Runs robotic sample prep and sequencing without manual bench work.

2. Salmonella serotyping: Identifies Salmonella serotypes directly from environmental or product swabs.

3. Listeria persistence monitoring: Tracks recurring Listeria strains across facility sampling sites.

4. Automated bioinformatics: Analyzes sequencing data through a built-in software pipeline.

5. Lab-as-a-service model: Lets food companies outsource pathogen testing without owning equipment.

6. Molecular characterization: Provides strain-level pathogen data beyond standard presence/absence tests.