Metofico

What do they actually do

Metofico makes a web-based, no‑code analysis platform for preclinical life‑science data. Today it has two main modules: Fiber Photometry Analyzer (FPA) for importing, preprocessing, and visualizing photometry traces (multi‑channel support, event/animal managers, normalization, built‑in plots), and TOMB‑AI for markerless, multi‑animal video tracking with automated behavior recognition, heatmaps, speed/distance metrics, and exportable results (Metofico site, tracking module).

For behavior recognition, Metofico typically handles model training for customers using a small labeled video set, then users review and correct AI scoring before exporting figures/data (Excel/PNG/SVG) and annotation‑overlaid videos to aid reproducibility (tracking module). The product is offered as an online platform with demos/trials and direct onboarding, and is used by preclinical/neuroscience groups in academic labs, cores, and similar settings (Metofico site, YC profile, SfN presence).

They say they’ll keep expanding analysis modules (e.g., EEG/ECG), add reproducibility‑oriented exports/visualizations, and iterate based on researcher feedback, with both offline and emerging live workflows referenced in public materials (YC profile, Metofico site, tracking module).

Who are their target customer(s)

• Academic/neuroscience labs running fiber‑photometry experiments: They need a consistent way to preprocess and visualize photometry traces without writing code, and struggle with inconsistent pipelines and time spent cleaning data for each experiment (Metofico FPA, YC profile).
• Behavioral neuroscience groups recording multi‑animal videos: They spend hours manually tracking animals and scoring behaviors, and need reliable markerless tracking and automated behavior detection that generalizes across many videos (tracking module).
• Core facility or shared‑equipment managers: They must provide standardized, reproducible analysis to diverse users with minimal training, but face heavy support burdens from bespoke scripts and inconsistent outputs (Metofico platform & onboarding).
• Small biotech / preclinical CRO teams running throughput studies: They need fast, auditable analysis pipelines for study endpoints to accelerate decisions and can’t afford long engineering projects for in‑house tools (YC profile).
• Graduate students and technicians without programming skills: They need to turn raw videos or traces into publishable figures/tables quickly, but rely on others or slow manual steps to get clean, exportable results (Metofico exports & onboarding).

How would they acquire their first 10, 50, and 100 customers

• First 10: Run hands‑on pilots with founder contacts and existing internal users; offer free/discounted pilots where Metofico trains behavior models and onboards labs, then convert pilots into short case studies and testimonials (founder interview, product pages).
• First 50: Target core facilities and active neuroscience labs via conferences and educational outreach; run a small booth/workshop at neuroscience meetings (they already attend SfN) and host technical webinars, with a standardized core‑facility pilot package and fast model‑build SLAs (YC profile, SfN listing).
• First 100: Introduce a polished self‑serve trial with templates for common experiments; publish reproducible example workflows/case studies, and sell bundled onboarding (one paid training session + model build) to cores and small CROs, with referral discounts to labs that introduce new customers (Metofico demos/onboarding).

What is the rough total addressable market

Top-down context:

Near‑term TAM for Metofico’s current modules (no‑code fiber‑photometry analysis plus video tracking/behavior scoring) is roughly $0.4–0.6B annually, based on conservative slices of adjacent markets: preclinical CROs, fiber‑photometry systems, and animal behavior analysis spend (Grand View Research, Dataintelo fiber photometry).

Bottom-up calculation:

Illustrative build: ~5% of the ~$6.19B preclinical CRO market ≈ $310M for specialized software/analytics, plus ~20% of the ~$127M fiber‑photometry systems market ≈ $25M, plus a conservative $100–150M slice of animal‑behavior analysis/instruments/software spend; total ≈ $0.4–0.6B. Note that dedicated behavioral‑tracking software alone is reported around ~$385M in 2024, supporting the conservatism of the $100–150M slice (Grand View Research, Dataintelo fiber photometry, Dataintelo animal behavioral tracking software).

Assumptions:

• Only a small fraction (5–20%) of adjacent hardware/services markets flows to specialized software/analytics today.
• Academic labs, cores, and CROs will pay for standardized, auditable analysis tools that reduce manual scoring and bespoke code.
• The $100–150M behavior slice is conservative relative to software‑only estimates (~$385M in 2024).

Who are some of their notable competitors

• Noldus EthoVision XT: Widely used commercial system for video‑based animal tracking and behavior analysis; strong footprint in academic labs and cores.
• ANY‑maze: Commercial behavioral tracking and analysis software used across labs for maze and open‑field studies; known for ease of use.
• DeepLabCut: Open‑source, deep‑learning–based markerless pose estimation toolkit; popular in research settings for custom tracking workflows.
• CleverSys (TopScan/others): Commercial suite for automated behavior recognition and tracking with domain‑specific modules (e.g., social interaction, gait).
• Doric Neuroscience Studio (fiber photometry): Fiber‑photometry hardware vendor with analysis software; serves labs that want integrated acquisition and analysis for photometry.