Tempus was founded in 2015 by Eric Lefkofsky after his wife was diagnosed with breast cancer. He saw firsthand how little data was being used in treatment decisions and set out to change that. The company collects and analyzes clinical and molecular data to help physicians personalize cancer treatment for individual patients.
The platform combines genomic sequencing, clinical data from medical records, and advanced analytics to build profiles of each patient’s disease. Oncologists can then see how similar patients responded to different therapies, helping them choose the most effective treatment path. Tempus has built one of the largest libraries of clinical and molecular data in the world, with records from hundreds of thousands of patients.
Tempus went public in 2024 and has expanded beyond oncology into cardiology, neuropsychiatry, and infectious disease. The company works with major cancer centers and community oncology practices across the US. Its AI-powered tools are used in both clinical care and drug development — pharmaceutical companies tap into Tempus data to identify clinical trial candidates and understand treatment patterns. The company pulls in over $500 million in annual revenue.
