Seer (NASDAQ:SEER) reported fourth-quarter 2025 revenue of $4.2 million and full-year 2025 revenue of $16.6 million, representing 17% year-over-year growth, as the company cited continued budget pressure and uncertainty around National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding as key headwinds for customer spending decisions.
Management said results in the quarter fell short of expectations, with Chief Financial Officer David Horn attributing the miss to project delays tied to NIH funding that pushed a customer purchase out of the fourth quarter and into 2026. Horn said the company has seen multiple academic customers become “much more hesitant” to purchase without funds already received, given the current environment.
2025 performance and commercial traction
Farokhzad pointed to several large-scale deployments as evidence of platform adoption, including a 20,000-sample population study with Korea University and a 10,000-sample project in collaboration with Discovery Life Sciences. He said studies of that magnitude were not previously feasible with traditional mass spectrometry proteomics approaches, which he characterized as lacking the depth and scalability needed for standardized processing of tens of thousands of samples.
Seer also emphasized its growing scientific footprint. The company said cumulative publications nearly doubled to 70 by the end of 2025 from 36 at the end of 2024, and noted that two previously highlighted studies have been published in Nature Genetics and Nature.
Product roadmap: software, new assays, and next-generation platform
Seer outlined multiple product and development initiatives. Farokhzad said the company launched its third-generation assay, Proteograph ONE, and its second-generation automation instrument, SP200, in June. He said more than 1,000 samples per week can now be run on Proteograph ONE, compared with 112 samples per week in 2021.
Looking forward, Seer said it is developing the fourth generation of its Proteograph Analysis Suite (PAS), targeted for release later in 2026. Farokhzad said the updated PAS will include AI capabilities that allow customers to interact with data via a chat-based large language model interface, reflecting the growing data intensity of large studies.
The company also discussed plans to expand beyond discovery and into translational markets. Seer said it intends to commercialize a proteoform profiling assay kit in 2027 that is expected to run on the SP200 automation instrument, with applications including neurodegenerative diseases and oncology.
In addition, Farokhzad described development of an “end-to-end sample-to-data proteomic solution” for high-throughput biomarker discovery and population-scale multi-omic studies, including a next-generation detector intended to broaden access to deep, unbiased proteomics. He said Seer has been investing in the effort since 2022 and expects to share data on the platform in the second half of 2026 through collaborators and partners.
Business model levers: placements, services, and partnerships
Seer said it has taken steps to lower adoption barriers as capital budgets remain pressured. Farokhzad noted that about 60% of instruments installed in 2025 were placed through the company’s Strategic Instrument Placement program (SIP), designed to allow capital-constrained customers to leverage operating budgets to purchase consumables. The company also reported continued demand for its Seer Technology Access Center (STAC) service model, and said roughly half of instrument installs in 2025 came from previous STAC customers.
Seer also said its expanded partnership with Thermo Fisher Scientific to co-market and sell the Proteograph product suite alongside Thermo Fisher’s Orbitrap Astral mass spectrometer continues to progress, with teams pursuing opportunities ranging from individual accounts to large population-scale studies. Farokhzad added that Seer has initiated a search for a chief commercial officer.
Financial results: margins, expense reductions, and cash position
In the fourth quarter, product revenue was $2.8 million and service revenue was $1.2 million, with service revenue primarily related to STAC projects. Seer did not recognize related-party revenue in Q4 2025; excluding related-party revenue recognized in Q4 2024, total revenue grew 16% year-over-year. Gross profit was $2.2 million and gross margin was 52%, compared with 51% in the year-ago quarter, which Horn said was driven by greater consumable kit sales.
Fourth-quarter operating expenses were $19.6 million, down 23% from $25.5 million a year earlier, reflecting decreases in both R&D and SG&A, including lower stock-based compensation. Net loss for the quarter was $16.0 million, compared with $21.7 million in the prior-year quarter.
For the full year, gross margin was 51% and net loss was $73.6 million, compared with $86.6 million in 2024. Horn said the company expects quarterly gross margin volatility but reiterated a long-term gross margin target of 70% to 75% “at scale.”
Seer ended 2025 with approximately $241 million in cash, cash equivalents, and investments. Horn said free cash flow loss was about $45.6 million in 2025, improving from $49.4 million in 2024, and added that the company expects to reduce free cash flow loss again in 2026. He also said Seer believes it has sufficient capital to reach cash flow breakeven.
Share repurchases, NOL plan, and 2026 guidance
Management discussed continued capital return actions. Seer repurchased about 5.3 million shares in 2025 for roughly $10.2 million, and Horn said the company bought those shares at an average price of $1.93 per share. Since the inception of the repurchase authorization in May 2024 through year-end 2025, Seer has repurchased approximately 11.7 million shares at a volume-weighted average price of $1.87 per share, utilizing about $22 million of its prior $25 million authorization. The board has authorized an additional $25 million share repurchase program.
Horn also noted the board unanimously adopted a tax benefit preservation plan intended to protect net operating loss carryforwards and other tax assets. He said Seer had approximately $262 million of NOLs as of December 31, 2025, and directed investors to additional details in a Form 8-K filed the same day.
For 2026, Seer guided to revenue of $16 million to $18 million, implying about 3% growth at the midpoint. Horn said the outlook assumes continued pressure on instrument placements and new project funding amid ongoing uncertainty around government and NIH funding, and that customer behavior has remained consistent with trends observed in the second half of 2025. He added that guidance does not include potential contributions from additional population-scale studies that could be announced in 2026, which he said could represent upside if they materialize.
In the question-and-answer session, Farokhzad said management views the guidance as guarded given the funding backdrop and the “activation energy” required for customers to shift from targeted approaches to unbiased, mass-spec-based proteomics workflows. He said the company’s growing body of publications and the launch of a diagnostic test developed using Proteograph-discovered biomarkers are strengthening tailwinds, but also noted that results can be “lumpy” given Seer’s current revenue scale.
About Seer (NASDAQ:SEER)
Seer, Inc is a life sciences company focused on pioneering next-generation proteomics, the large-scale study of proteins and their functions in complex biological systems. By leveraging proprietary nanoparticle-based technology, Seer’s platform enables high-throughput, unbiased protein analysis from biological samples, addressing a critical bottleneck in drug discovery, biomarker research and precision medicine.
The company’s flagship Proteograph Product Suite combines engineered nanoparticle assays with advanced mass spectrometry and bioinformatics pipelines to deliver deep proteomic coverage in a scalable workflow.
