Friday, 13 April 2018

Eric Lefkofsky Plans to Expand Tempus with New Funding

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Eric Lefkofsky is an American entrepreneur who has been the brain behind multiple business ventures. He grew up in Michigan as the son of a school teacher and structural engineer. After graduating from the University of Michigan in 1991, he continued on to the university's law school; receving his Juris Doctor in 1993.

Lefkofsky began his entrepreneurial adventures shortly after graduation, when he bought a Wisconsin-based clothing company with a college friend. This purchase jump-started Eric Lefkofsky's career. Fast-forward more than 15 years and Lefkofsky had already had his hands in multiple business projects, like InnerWorkings, Echo Global Logistics, MediaBank, and Lightbank; an investment firm specializing in disruptive technologies.


Not just interested in business, Eric Lefkofsky is an active philanthropist. He founded the Lefkofsky Family Foundation in 2006 alongside his wife. This charitable foundation seeks to enhance the lives of the communities it serves through charity, education, and science. Eric is also the author of a book about how technology affects business, Accelerated Disruption.

He is the Chairman of the Board of Trustees for the Steppenwolf Theatre Company and an adjunct professor at the University of Chicago. Lefkofsky is also a Trustee for The Museum of Science and Industry, World Business Chicago, The Art Institiute of Chicago, and the Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago.

With all of his previous success, Eric Lefkofsky yearned for more. After experiencing the personal effect that cancer can have on one's life firsthand, Eric co-founded Tempus in 2015. Tempus is a technology-based company that uses very specific data to personalize the care of cancer patients. This data can not only personalize each patient's care, but also make it more efficient.

The startup company had already received roughly $210 million in investment funding since its founding, but recent efforts in fundraising has earned Tempus a cool $80-million more. The latest $80-million-fundraising-round puts Tempus at a company valuation of around $1.1 billion. Reaching "unicorn" status, or having a valuation of more than $1 billion, is an extreme feat for any startup.

A few investors that have stuck with Tempus from the beginning, like Revolution Growth and New Enterprise Associates, have added to this investment-round. There are also new investors like T. Rowe Price Associates and Kinship Trust Co. that have entered the game. With this increase in funding, Tempus plans to add to its 400 employee-base by 30 employees per month. Lefkofsky plans to continue that pace of employee-growth for quite some time, while also using that funding to expand its research and reach.

The expansive funding will add to Tempus' progress of using clinical data to discover trends in the overall treatment of cancer. Tempus also collects specific data from cancer patients undergoing treatment. With more growth on the horizon, Eric Lefkofsky can look to the future and expand its already-large network of relationships with organizations in individuals from all over the healthcare system.

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