Clinical trial software · Decentralized research
Curebase
A clinical trial company that turned drive-through testing lines into research sites, then closed its services arm and became a software vendor. It is now on its second CEO and giving its site tools away.
A parking lot becomes a research site
In the autumn of 2020, people waited in their cars in lines for a COVID-19 test. Some of them, while they waited, opened a study website on their own phone, answered screening questions and consented to join a clinical trial. Nobody got out of the car. Nobody walked into a research center.
The study was a validation run for Luminostics, whose Clip COVID Rapid Antigen Test read its result through the camera of an iPhone SE docked in a reader. The FDA granted it an emergency use authorization on December 7, 2020. The screening and consent layer running in those cars was Curebase.
“Conducting a study like this within a traditional research center would typically require many physical interactions with individuals infected with COVID-19,” founder Tom Lemberg said at the time.
That was the argument in its clearest form. A clinical trial does not need a building.
The problem it picked
Traditional trials run at academic medical centers, which is where the investigators are and where most patients are not. Enrollment is slow and the enrolled population skews toward people who live near research hospitals.
Curebase built software for the other model: recruit patients wherever they live, consent them on their own device, let their own doctor or a community clinic serve as the site. Early on it went past software and staffed the work itself, supplying principal investigators, coordinators and project managers under what it called a virtual research site.
The Clinical Trials Transformation Initiative, co-founded by the FDA and Duke, wrote that expansion up as a case study. One detail says a lot: before the move into services, most of the team thought of “API” as an application programming interface rather than an active pharmaceutical ingredient.
The founder
Tom Lemberg founded Curebase in 2017 and took it through Y Combinator in the Summer 2018 batch. Forbes named him to its 2022 30 Under 30 list for healthcare. He hired to match: Jane Myles, a long-tenured clinical operations leader, joined in 2021 as vice president of clinical trial innovation and became one of the field’s loudest voices.
“It’s essential to push ahead to make sure that we don’t simply go back to what is familiar,” Myles said in a 2023 interview, worrying aloud that sponsors would revert to old habits once the pandemic receded. They did, more or less.
The peak, then the turn
Money arrived on the pandemic curve. GGV Capital led a $15 million Series A in May 2021 and GGV managing partner Jeff Richards joined the board. Twelve months later Industry Ventures led a $40 million Series B, with Gilead Sciences investing strategically. The company put its lifetime total at $59 million and said it had run more than 50 studies with 300 to 400 percent growth year over year.
Fifteen months later the model came apart. In August 2023 Curebase cut staff and shut the services business, saying it would “sunset our full-service clinical operations business and focus our company efforts on our SaaS platform” Fierce Biotech, which quoted the statement, put headcount at roughly 82 before the cuts. Curebase was not alone. Applied Clinical Trials reported in August 2024 that headcount across decentralized trial software firms had fallen more than 20 percent from its highs.
Second act
On April 9, 2025, after more than seven years, Lemberg handed the company to Storm Stillman, the chief operating officer. “I am honored to build upon the incredible foundation Tom has created,” Stillman said.
The strategy under Stillman points at the constituency the decentralized wave bypassed: the research sites. In January 2026 Curebase launched Sitebase, giving sites its trial management system, investigator site file and eSource tools at no cost, alongside a voice agent named Hope that answers inbound patient calls and transcribes visit data. The Society for Clinical Research Sites now bills Stillman as “the CEO of Sitebase, by Curebase.”
What is proven, and what is still claimed
| Evidence | What the record shows | Source type |
|---|---|---|
| Registered trials | Collaborator on seven ClinicalTrials.gov studies, sponsor of none. Sponsors: Cofactor Genomics, Vicore Pharma AB, Checkable Medical, Seed Health, Blue Note Therapeutics, Meru Health with the National Institute of Mental Health, and Chris Emerson, sponsor-investigator. | Public record |
| Status of the seven | Four completed (1,598 participants), one recruiting since February 2020 with completion estimated February 2027, one withdrawn with zero enrollment, one unknown since 2022. | Public record |
| Most recent start | The newest start date among the seven is December 1, 2022, and that study was withdrawn without enrolling anyone. The most recent one that did enroll began April 17, 2022. | Public record |
| Best readout | Vicore Pharma’s COMPANION study of Almee, a digital CBT for pulmonary fibrosis, met its primary endpoint with a 2.7 point GAD-7 improvement, reported January 2024. Registry enrollment 119. | Public record |
| FDA action supported | Luminostics’s Clip COVID Rapid Antigen Test got an emergency use authorization December 7, 2020. Curebase ran screening and consent for the validation study, per both companies. | Company and partner |
| At-home strep test | NCT05107362 completed July 10, 2023 with 1,347 participants. Checkable’s help page, archived June 2026, still invites visitors to “Stay informed about FDA clearance progress.” | Public record |
| “Pivotal study receiving FDA clearance” | The May 2022 Series B release claims “97% satisfaction in a recent pivotal study receiving FDA clearance.” No such clearance was found. The only FDA action tied to a Curebase study is the 2020 Luminostics authorization, which is not a clearance. | Differs from the record |
| Founder attribution | Curebase’s own 2025 release, Fierce Biotech and MobiHealthNews name Tom Lemberg as founder. The Y Combinator directory lists Storm Stillman alone under “Founders,” and a data aggregator has copied it. | Differs from the record |
| Scale claims | 21 new studies, 5,824 patients enrolled, 10,643 site visits and 4,111 zip codes prescreened in 2022; more than 50 studies and 25 customers as of 2022. None independently verifiable. | Company-stated |
| Headcount | Roughly 82 before the August 2023 layoffs. The Y Combinator directory lists 27 and a Fort Lauderdale base as of September 2026; it was San Francisco based through 2023. | Independent |
| Papers, grants, FDA records in its own name | No PubMed hits, no NIH or NSF awards, no FDA 510(k) or PMA records found. | Not found |
Read plainly: Curebase leaves a real, checkable trace in the public record, which is more than most trial software vendors can show, and it is small. Seven registered studies, one clean pivotal readout, one emergency authorization, nothing new started since 2022. The company’s own numbers describe a far larger operation than the registry does, and both can be true, because diagnostic, supplement and many device studies never have to register.
What to watch
- A new registered study naming Curebase. The last one to enroll started in April 2022.
- Whether Sitebase, free to sites, converts into sponsor-paid revenue, and whether it stays inside Curebase. Its website is published under the name Sitebase Inc., and no such company appears in SEC records.
- A named sponsor customer since 2022. Gilead Sciences was named investor and partner that year and has not appeared in an announcement since.
- Any financing. Nothing announced since May 2022, no Form D filed since July 2021.
- Whether Checkable Medical’s at-home strep test, the largest study Curebase worked on, ever clears.
In their words
“Conducting a study like this within a traditional research center would typically require many physical interactions with individuals infected with COVID-19.”
Tom Lemberg, founder and CEO, December 2020 · Company release
“Curebase’s product and services allowed us to safely and quickly enroll study participants.”
Bala Raja, CEO, Luminostics, December 2020 · Partner-stated
“So we take the trial to the patient. And our vision is really to enable any patient to be in a clinical trial, wherever they live, at home and with their own doctor in their own community.”
Tom Lemberg to MobiHealthNews, May 2022 · Interview
“It’s essential to push ahead to make sure that we don’t simply go back to what is familiar.”
Jane Myles, VP clinical trial innovation, Med Ad News, 2023 · Interview
“After much thought and market input, we have decided to sunset our full-service clinical operations business and focus our company efforts on our SaaS platform”
Tom Lemberg, quoted by Fierce Biotech, August 2023 · Independent
“I am honored to build upon the incredible foundation Tom has created,”
Storm Stillman, on becoming CEO, April 2025 · Company release
“Sites deserve to have the most modern software, without breaking the bank.”
Storm Stillman, CEO, January 2026 · Company release
Related companies
Sources
- Public recordClinicalTrials.gov, seven studies naming Curebase Inc.
- Public recordForm D, Curebase, Inc., CIK 0001757561
- IndependentFDA Grants Emergency Use Authorization for Luminostics Coronavirus Antigen Test
- IndependentDecentralized clinical trial startup Curebase raises $40M
- IndependentCurebase axes some staff in pivot from clinical operations to trial software
- InterviewQ&A with Curebase’s Jane Myles
- IndependentDecentralized Clinical Trials: Bust or Breakthrough?
- IndependentCurebase Applies CTTI’s Decentralized Clinical Trials Recommendations
- IndependentStorm Stillman speaker profile
- SponsorVicore Reports Positive Results for the Pivotal Study of its Digital Therapy
- CompanyNon-Traditional Clinical Trial Sites Powered by the Curebase System
- CompanyCurebase, Checkable Medical Announce Joint Clinical Trial
- CompanyCurebase Secures $40 Million in Series B Funding
- CompanyCurebase Celebrates Year of Growth, Organizational Maturity
- CompanyCurebase Announces Important Leadership Update
- CompanyCurebase Expands AI-Powered eClinical Platform and Launches Sitebase
- DirectoryCurebase company listing
- PartnerCheckable frequently asked questions page
Profile researched and written by Healthcare Discovery. Last updated September 29, 2026.
