Eric Lefkofsky, a cofounder of Groupon, started Tempus soon after his wife was diagnosed with breast cancer. He found that her doctors had little data to guide their choices. Tempus set out to sequence tumors, collect clinical records, and use AI to match patients with treatments. By the time it filed to go public in 2024, it had built a large library of clinical and molecular data on cancer patients.

Data for Every Tumor

Lefkofsky founded the company in Chicago in 2015 as Tempus Labs. The bet was that genomic testing would become routine in cancer care, and the data behind it would be worth more than the tests. Tempus sold sequencing to doctors and sold data to drug makers. It later moved into cardiology, radiology, and depression. Lefkofsky ran it as CEO, and he still does.

Bigger After the Bell

Tempus priced at $37 a share on June 13, 2024, the top of its range, and listed on Nasdaq as TEM. It raised about $411 million, and the stock closed the first day up about 9 percent. In November 2024 Tempus agreed to buy Ambry Genetics for $600 million. In July 2026 it announced a deal for Personalis, valued at about $1.5 billion. Tempus still trades on Nasdaq.

Cover: Father Time, Alessandro Algardi. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for Father Time (tempus).