Leapcure
Platform for clinical trial patient recruitment, engagement, retention, and analytics, leveraging patient advocacy groups.
Website: https://leapcure.com
Cover Block
From the public record
| Attribute | Value |
|---|---|
| Name | Leapcure |
| Tagline | Platform for clinical trial patient recruitment, engagement, retention, and analytics, leveraging patient advocacy groups. |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, California |
| Founded | 2015 |
| Stage | Seed |
| Business Model | B2B |
| Industry | Healthtech |
| Technology | Software (Non-AI) |
| Geography | Global / Remote-First |
| Growth Profile | Venture Scale |
| Founding Team | Zachary Gobst, Kyle Eaton, Luis De Avila, Spencer Sims, Tyler Dornenburg [Crunchbase Person Profile, 2026][Leapcure Blog][me.sh, 2026] |
| Funding Label | Seed (total disclosed ~$125,000) |
| Total Disclosed | $125,000 [Startup Fundraising, Aug 2026] |
Links
From the public record
- Website: https://leapcure.com/en/about
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/leapcure
The Short Version
From the public record Leapcure is a venture-scale clinical trial recruitment and engagement platform that has operated for nearly a decade, building a distinct position by leveraging patient advocacy groups as a primary channel to address the industry's persistent enrollment bottleneck [Craft]. The company's longevity and recent acquisition activity suggest a durable, if capital-light, operational model that merits a closer look for its network effects and potential expansion into adjacent research services.
The company was founded in 2015 by Zachary Gobst, who was motivated by a personal family health scare to build a more patient-centric approach to clinical research [Apple Podcasts, June 2025]. Its core software platform is designed to support the full recruitment funnel, using a study's specific criteria to match patients, then employing communication tools for engagement and analytics for sponsor oversight [Craft]. Differentiation stems from its claimed network of over 12,000 patient advocacy groups across 42 countries, a distribution asset cultivated since 2016 that is difficult for new entrants to replicate quickly [Leapcure].
Public funding records show a modest early capitalization, with a $125,000 seed round in 2015 and participation in the 500 Startups accelerator program the following year [Startup Fundraising, Aug 2026][Tracxn]. The business model is B2B, targeting pharmaceutical and, more recently, medical device sponsors [CB Insights]. The founding team appears to have been a larger initial group, with Zachary Gobst as CEO and Dylan Berkenfeld as COO forming the current public leadership, supported by several other early co-founders in technical and partnership roles [Crunchbase Person Profile, 2026][RocketReach, 2026].
Over the next 12-18 months, key monitors will be the integration and performance of the August 2024 acquisition of Honeybee Trials, which expanded capabilities with research site partnerships, and any signals of renewed institutional fundraising to scale the service offering [Accesswire, Aug 2024][University of Toronto, 2026].
Single-source, plausible -- Core company facts are public, but key traction and funding metrics rely on single, older sources or company-reported figures.
Taxonomy Snapshot
| Axis | Classification |
|---|---|
| Stage | Seed |
| Business Model | B2B |
| Industry / Vertical | Healthtech |
| Technology Type | Software (Non-AI) |
| Geography | Global / Remote-First |
| Growth Profile | Venture Scale |
| Founding Team | Solo Founder |
| Funding | Seed (total disclosed ~$125,000) |
The Company in Brief
From the public record
Leapcure was founded in 2015 in San Francisco as a patient-advocacy-led approach to clinical trial recruitment [Crunchbase]. The company's origin story, as recounted by founder and CEO Zachary Gobst, was motivated by a family health scare, framing its mission around improving equity and empathy in research [Apple Podcasts, June 2025]. Its earliest public positioning centered on connecting pharmaceutical sponsors with a network of patient advocacy groups to accelerate enrollment.
The company's disclosed early milestones are anchored in its 2015 seed financing and subsequent accelerator participation. A review of its initial pitch materials indicates a $125,000 seed round that year, with claims of revenue from four top-20 global pharma companies and strategic partnerships with major health foundations [Startup Fundraising, Aug 2026]. In August 2016, Leapcure joined the 500 Startups accelerator program, with 500 Global listed as an investor [Tracxn].
A more recent and concrete operational milestone was the acquisition of Honeybee Trials, a University of Toronto startup, on August 13, 2024 [Accesswire, Aug 2024]. This move was described as expanding Leapcure's clinical trial product capabilities and collaborations with research sites. The company also reports having worked with over 12,000 patient advocacy groups across 42 countries since 2016, though this figure is self-reported [Leapcure].
Single-source, plausible -- Founding date and accelerator participation are confirmed. Early funding and milestone claims are from a single source analyzing historical pitch materials. The 2024 acquisition is independently verified.
What They Have Built
Mixed sourcing
The product is a clinical trial operations platform built around a specific wedge: patient advocacy groups. Leapcure's core offering, as described in company materials, supports the full recruitment-to-retention workflow for trial sponsors [Craft]. This includes patient recruitment, engagement, retention, and analytics. The recruitment engine is designed to match patients to studies based on condition, inclusion/exclusion criteria, geography, and procedures. For engagement, the platform provides communication tools via text, email, and phone. The analytics layer allows sponsors to monitor recruitment timelines and advertising performance [Craft].
A key [PUBLIC] differentiator is the claimed scale of its advocacy network, which the company says includes more than 12,000 Patient Advocacy Groups across 42 countries [Leapcure]. The 2015 pitch deck positioned this network as the foundation for an alternative recruitment model, citing partnerships with major health organizations like the American Liver Foundation, American Diabetes Association, and American Lung Association [Startup Fundraising, Aug 2026]. The company has since expanded its services to the medical-device industry, offering recruitment, enrollment, and patient engagement for device trials [CB Insights].
Recent activity suggests a move toward a more integrated services model. In August 2024, Leapcure acquired Honeybee Trials, a University of Toronto startup that connects research teams with patients and study participants [Accesswire, Aug 2024][University of Toronto, 2026]. The acquisition was described as expanding clinical trial product capabilities and collaborations with research sites, biotech firms, and private clinical trial sites [Leapcure Blog]. The technology stack is not detailed in public sources, though the product's described functions imply a standard web-based SaaS architecture with database, matching, and communication modules.
Single-source, plausible -- Product features corroborated by multiple databases; network scale and acquisition are company-reported.
Market Size and Demand
Mixed sourcing Patient recruitment is the single largest cost and schedule driver for clinical trials, a bottleneck that has persisted for decades and now faces intensifying pressure from the industry's push toward more complex, targeted, and equitable studies [Note to File Podcast, 2026]. The market for solutions that streamline this process is not a single, neatly defined software category, but a fragmented services and technology landscape where demand is shaped by the operational realities of drug and device development.
Quantifying the total addressable market for patient recruitment services is challenging due to its embedded nature within broader clinical trial spending. Public analyst reports on the clinical trial industry provide a useful analog. The global clinical trials market was valued at approximately $49.8 billion in 2023 and is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.9% through 2030 [Grand View Research, 2023]. Within this, patient recruitment and retention services are estimated to constitute a significant portion of trial budgets, with some industry analyses suggesting sponsors spend between $6,000 and $20,000 per enrolled patient, with recruitment advertising and site support accounting for a substantial share of that cost [Clinical Leader, 2023].
Demand is driven by several converging tailwinds. The rise of precision medicine and rare disease trials increases the difficulty of finding eligible patients, while heightened focus on diversity and inclusion mandates from regulators like the FDA requires sponsors to cast a wider, more representative net [Note to File Podcast, 2026]. Simultaneously, the growth of decentralized trial models creates new needs for digital engagement and retention tools. These pressures make the traditional, site-dependent recruitment model increasingly untenable, creating a clear wedge for platforms that can use alternative networks, such as patient advocacy groups, to identify and engage potential participants more efficiently.
Adjacent and substitute markets include the broader clinical trial technology stack, encompassing electronic data capture (EDC), clinical trial management systems (CTMS), and site feasibility tools. While these are complementary, a more direct substitute is the entrenched model of contract research organizations (CROs) handling recruitment as a bundled service. The competitive threat here is not displacement, but disintermediation, as sponsors may seek specialized, tech-enabled recruiters to achieve better speed and cost metrics than a generalist CRO can provide. The regulatory environment acts as both a barrier and a catalyst. Stricter patient privacy laws (e.g., GDPR, HIPAA) govern data handling, but recent regulatory guidance encouraging greater patient diversity effectively mandates investment in new outreach strategies.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Global Clinical Trials Market (2023) | 49.8 $B |
| Projected CAGR (2023-2030) | 5.9 % |
| Estimated Cost per Patient Enrolled | 6 $K (low) |
| Estimated Cost per Patient Enrolled | 20 $K (high) |
The chart illustrates the substantial financial container within which recruitment operates. The high per-patient cost estimate underscores the economic use a platform could achieve by shaving even a small percentage off enrollment timelines or screen-failure rates. The verdict for any player in this space will hinge on demonstrating a measurable return against these embedded costs, rather than simply claiming a share of a multi-billion-dollar TAM.
Single-source, plausible -- Market sizing figures are from analogous industry reports, not specific to the patient recruitment sub-segment. Demand drivers are corroborated by industry podcast commentary.
Who Else Is Fighting for This
Mixed sourcing Leapcure enters a crowded field by positioning its platform as a bridge between patient advocacy groups and clinical trial sponsors, rather than as a direct-to-patient or pure technology play.
The competitive set for clinical trial recruitment and engagement is fragmented, with several named players targeting different parts of the value chain. Based on the listed competitors, the landscape includes traditional patient recruitment service providers like Antidote and Trialbee, AI-driven data analytics platforms such as Deep 6 AI, and patient-facing support applications including Leal Health and Outcomes4Me. Leapcure's model, which leverages advocacy groups as a distribution and trust wedge, overlaps with segments of each category but does not directly replicate any single approach.
Leapcure's most cited defensible edge is its claimed network of over 12,000 Patient Advocacy Groups across 42 countries, a distribution channel built since 2016 [Leapcure]. However, this metric is self-reported and lacks independent verification. The August 2024 acquisition of Honeybee Trials, a startup connecting research teams with patients, adds capabilities in site partnerships and could deepen its service offering [Accesswire, Aug 2024]. This edge is perishable; it depends on maintaining exclusive or preferred relationships with advocacy groups and successfully integrating the acquisition, tasks that require consistent execution and potentially more capital than the company has disclosed.
The company is most exposed to competitors with superior technology integration or greater financial resources. For instance, AI-native platforms like Deep 6 AI automate patient matching using clinical data, potentially offering sponsors faster, more precise recruitment at scale. Leapcure's reliance on manual advocacy group partnerships and its thin disclosed funding history leave it vulnerable to being outpaced by better-capitalized rivals that can invest in both technology and commercial expansion. Furthermore, it does not own the patient relationship in the way a direct-to-consumer health app might, ceding that channel to others.
A plausible 18-month scenario sees the market bifurcating between technology-led efficiency and relationship-driven quality. In this frame, Leapcure could be a winner if sponsor demand shifts toward high-retention, advocacy-vetted patient cohorts, allowing it to monetize its network depth. Conversely, it risks becoming a loser if AI matching achieves sufficient accuracy to bypass advocacy groups entirely, benefiting a competitor like Deep 6 AI that can demonstrate lower cost per enrolled patient.
Single-source, plausible -- Leapcure's key network claim is self-reported; competitor analysis is inferred from industry categories due to a lack of public positioning data for named rivals.
Opportunity
From the public record The prize for Leapcure is a central role in a clinical trial ecosystem where patient recruitment and retention are persistent, multi-billion-dollar bottlenecks, with its unique wedge through advocacy groups offering a path to scale that traditional vendors cannot easily replicate.
The headline opportunity is to become the default patient engagement layer for sponsors and CROs, not just a recruitment vendor. This outcome is reachable because the company's foundational thesis, connecting trials directly to established patient communities, addresses a core inefficiency in clinical development. The evidence that this model can work at scale is the company's self-reported network of over 12,000 Patient Advocacy Groups across 42 countries [Leapcure]. While unverified, this figure suggests an early-mover advantage in building a critical mass of community relationships that would be difficult and time-consuming for a new entrant to replicate. The 2024 acquisition of Honeybee Trials, a platform connecting research teams with patients, further signals an intent to build out a more comprehensive suite of site and patient-facing tools, moving beyond pure recruitment [Accesswire, Aug 2024][University of Toronto, 2026].
Growth from this foundation could follow several concrete paths, each hinging on a specific catalyst.
| Scenario | What happens | Catalyst | Why it's plausible |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Advocacy Network Effect | Advocacy groups become the primary channel for patient pre-screening and education, with Leapcure as the mandatory intermediary. | A major pharmaceutical sponsor mandates the use of Leapcure's network for all patient-facing communications in a blockbuster trial. | The company's early pitch claimed partnerships with major health foundations [Startup Fundraising, Aug 2026], demonstrating an initial focus on this channel. |
| The Embedded CRO Platform | Large contract research organizations (CROs) white-label Leapcure's patient matching and engagement tools across their entire trial portfolio. | A strategic partnership or white-label deal with a top-10 global CRO is announced. | CEO Zach Gobst has publicly engaged with industry discussions on the evolving role of CROs, indicating strategic focus on this buyer [Note to File Podcast, 2026]. |
| The Medical Device Standard | The company becomes the go-to recruitment partner for medical device trials, a faster-growing segment with distinct patient profiles. | Leapcure publicly secures a multi-trial master service agreement with a top-5 medical device company. | The company has already expanded its service offering to target the medical device industry [CB Insights]. |
Compounding for Leapcure would manifest as a data and trust flywheel. Each successful trial deployment through an advocacy group generates two assets: deeper behavioral data on patient enrollment patterns and stronger trust equity with that community. This data could improve matching algorithms for future trials, increasing recruitment speed and lowering cost per patient for sponsors. In turn, proven performance makes advocacy groups more willing to recommend the platform to their members, strengthening the network. The acquisition of Honeybee Trials can be seen as an early turn of this wheel, adding site-level collaboration capabilities that complement the advocacy-side relationships, creating a more closed-loop system [Leapcure Blog].
The size of the win, should a dominant platform scenario play out, can be framed by looking at a scaled comparable. Publicly traded ICON plc, a full-service CRO, reported a market capitalization of approximately $25 billion as of early 2025. While Leapcure is not a CRO, a company that becomes the indispensable patient recruitment and engagement layer could command a significant premium within the clinical trial services value chain. A more direct, though private, comparison is Antidote, a digital patient recruitment platform that raised a $25 million Series B in 2021. If Leapcure successfully executes on the network-effect scenario and captures a leading share of the advocacy-led recruitment segment, a valuation in the high hundreds of millions to low billions is a plausible outcome (scenario, not a forecast). This represents a substantial multiple on the company's early, modest seed funding.
Single-source, plausible -- Core opportunity thesis is built on company-reported metrics and strategic moves; acquisition and market expansion are corroborated by third parties.
Sources
From the public record
[Craft] Leapcure Company Profile | https://craft.co/leapcure
[Leapcure] Leapcure , About | https://leapcure.com/en/about
[Apple Podcasts, June 2025] Zach Gobst: CEO of Leapcure | https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/zach-gobst-ceo-of-leapcure/id1798984533?i=1000715122762
[Crunchbase] Leapcure - Crunchbase Company Profile & Funding | https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/leapcure
[Startup Fundraising, Aug 2026] Leapcure Pitch Deck Breakdown (2015 Deck, 10 Slides) | https://startupfundraising.com/library/articles/leapcure-pitch-deck-teardown
[Tracxn] Leapcure - Overview, News & Similar companies | https://tracxn.com/d/companies/leapcure/__Wsja0dXyCHee6awjG91aNXt1S2Caa-DHMitvlbN8byY
[Accesswire, Aug 2024] Leapcure Acquires Honeybee Trials | https://www.accesswire.com/
[University of Toronto, 2026] University of Toronto startup Honeybee Trials acquired by Leapcure | https://www.utoronto.ca/news/university-toronto-startup-honeybee-trials-acquired-leapcure
[CB Insights] Leapcure Company Profile: Funding, Investors & Partnerships | https://www.cbinsights.com/company/leapcure
[Note to File Podcast, 2026] Patient Recruitment, Site Struggles and the Realities of Podcasting with Zach Gobst | https://notetofilepodcast.libsyn.com/patient-recruitment-site-struggles-and-the-realities-of-podcasting-with-zach-gobst
[Grand View Research, 2023] Clinical Trials Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report | https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/clinical-trials-market
[Clinical Leader, 2023] The True Cost of Patient Recruitment | https://www.clinicalleader.com/doc/the-true-cost-of-patient-recruitment-0001
[Leapcure Blog] Leapcure Acquires Honeybee Trials: Expanding Clinical Trial Solutions | https://blog.leapcure.com/leapcure-acquires-honeybee-trials-expanding-patient-engagement-and-research-site-solutions-for-clinical-trials/
[Crunchbase Person Profile, 2026] Luis De Avila - Crunchbase Person Profile | https://www.crunchbase.com/person/luis-de-avila
[RocketReach, 2026] Dylan Berkenfeld - RocketReach Profile | https://rocketreach.co/dylan-berkenfeld-email_47627281
[me.sh, 2026] Tyler Dornenburg Profile | https://me.sh/tylerdornenburg
Articles about Leapcure
- Leapcure Acquired Honeybee Trials to Expand Its Clinical Trial Network — The patient-recruitment platform has worked with over 12,000 advocacy groups since 2016, aiming to make trials more accessible.