BatchX

Halving Analysis Time, Cutting Costs for Life Sciences with PhotonX

BatchX and PhotonX have joined forces to create an innovative solution, transforming the landscape for life sciences researchers burdened by outdated and costly tools.

  • Client

    BatchX

  • Platform

    Web

  • Duration

    Initial Launch + 2 yrs Evolution

  • Industry

    Bioinformatics

  • Services

    • UX Design
    • UI Design
    • Web App Development
    • Website Design
    • Brand Design

About BatchX

Founded in 2019 by seasoned life sciences professionals in California's Bay Area, BatchX emerged from firsthand insights into how scientific progress is hampered by current dated and expensive tools that force the community to operate in a highly bottlenecked and siloed environment.

Aiming to democratize bioinformatics analysis for life sciences organizations and laboratories, BatchX set out to create a user-friendly, no-code platform and marketplace enabling scalable, on-demand data analysis. 

Please note: A founder of BatchX also co-founded PhotonX, while the remaining BatchX founders serve as advisors to PhotonX.

The Challenge

The life sciences industry has traditionally been resistant to change, especially in adopting new software. The major challenge in creating BatchX was not just building the technology but developing a tool that fit seamlessly into existing workflows while still providing enough value to justify a shift in technology. Adding to the complexity was the need to design a user experience suitable for a two-sided marketplace, balancing the needs of both tool creators and end-users.

How We Navigated Through Those Challenges

To overcome these hurdles, our team employed a multi-faceted strategy:

  • We collaborated with the founders and conducted interviews with hundreds of their users to validate our initial hypotheses.
  • We engaged 10 alpha users and closely collaborated with all stakeholders to pinpoint the core issues. 
  • Our approach included the iterative development of a Minimum Viable Product (MVP), complemented by user studies to continuously refine the product.
  • Over the following year, we worked diligently alongside the founding team to prepare the product for general availability.

Key Problems Identified

Infrastructure Complexity

It is complex and expensive to build and maintain a batch processing infrastructure. This is a significant challenge for the majority of the researchers and labs to perform their analysis reliably.

Outdated Tools

With the industry’s rapid evolution, finding the right bioinformatics tools and keeping them up-to-date is daunting. More often than not, researchers rely on outdated tools or spend significant time to make a newer version work. 

Tricky Collaborations

It is challenging to bring together peers with different expertise and priorities without a lot of back-and-forth communication. This forces them to work in a soiled environment thus hampering productivity. 

The Solution

We launched BatchX as a comprehensive solution that allows tool creators to monetize their work while helping users conduct analyses more efficiently. By integrating with existing workflows, BatchX makes adopting new technologies easier. Our user-friendly platform is designed for a two-sided marketplace, providing essential tools for creators and end-users to interact effectively. This boosts productivity for users and opens new revenue streams for creators, establishing BatchX as a valuable resource in the bioinformatics community.

Bringing All Stakeholders Together

Researchers and Clinicians

BatchX enables researchers and clinicians to process datasets using tools created by their team or external partners. It helps them avoid computational delays, work independently, and achieve faster results.

Data Scientists and Bioinformaticians

Data scientists and bioinformaticians can easily package and distribute their tools to teams and external collaborators. The self-descriptive nature of these tools minimizes the need for extensive communication.

Software Engineers and Developers

Software engineers and developers can create tools to expand their business, supported by BatchX's stable infrastructure. The platform's job cost visibility promotes efficiency and tool optimization.

Leadership Team

Leaders can focus their engineering efforts on specialized problem-solving, as BatchX manages the underlying infrastructure. Detailed per-job cost metrics provide transparency that is often missing in in-house solutions.

We helped launch BatchX as a one-stop solution that not only enables tool creators to monetize their work but also helps users to run their analyses more efficiently.

The End Result

BatchX rolled out their innovation product in 2022 and quickly received raving feedback from their early adopters. Impressively, 70% of their beta clients transitioned to paid subscriptions, underscoring the product's innovation and collaborative development. BatchX has achieved cash flow positivity — a significant milestone for any startup. The platform has successfully processed over 400,000 jobs and managed more than 3TB of data, demonstrating its robustness and reliability.

Quotes From BatchX Customers

BatchX has provided me with the autonomy I needed. I can now easily and rapidly perform analyses and review results. I know I can rely on their bioinformatics expertise when I need to. I feel I’m now more in control of my research studies.

Alberto Gonzalez
Researcher, VHIO

BatchX simplifies installation and usage for bioinformaticians dealing with intricate pipelines like RNA-seq, variant calling, and metagenomics. It streamlines processes through script importation, minimizing recurring errors. Additionally, the updates on per-job costs were greatly appreciated.

Adrian Santiago Ortiz
Bioinformatician, IMOMA

With BatchX, we've gained independence and faster turnaround times. We can choose when and how to conduct our bioinformatics analysis, receiving instant results. Thanks for the support and the platform! I feel like I have bioinformatics superpowers now!

Montse Vega
Researcher, Pompeu Fabra University

We are very happy with the bionformatics analyses we are running in BatchX. David and all the team are always ready to help and solve any question. We can now analyze all of our methylation data with confidence. Now, obtaining the tables and plots we were looking for is very easy.

Elena Hidalgo
Principal Investigator, Universitat Pompeu Fabra

BatchX enables quick and efficient metagenomic analyses. Its flexibility and the team's availability helped us enhance and tailor workflows to our needs. As a novice in bioinformatics, BatchX is inspiring, showcasing the extent of bioinformatic analyses.

Ignacio Montero
Bioinformatician, Microviable Therapeutics

Choosing BatchX for our first experience with an outsourced bioinformatic platform was spot-on! With David and the team behind us, every question was answered and every problem solved. Now, we're no longer intimidated by the software tools and pipelines for (epi)genetic analyses that were daunting just a few months ago!

Javier Abel Menendez
Principal Investigator, IDIGBI

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