# Bikanta

Source: https://onco.cc/companies/bikanta/  
OnCo record `bikanta` (Company). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Bikanta tried to use tiny fluorescent diamonds as imaging probes to spot cancer earlier. It went through Y Combinator in 2014 and is no longer operating.

## Summary

Bikanta developed fluorescent nanodiamond probes for background-free optical imaging, aiming to improve the signal of medical imaging and diagnostics by up to 100-fold over conventional fluorescence according to its YC profile. Nanodiamonds are bright, photostable and non-toxic and can be functionalised to bind cancer targets. The company is listed as inactive in the YC directory and its website was offline when checked on 2026-09-10; no clinical product was launched. Recorded here as part of the complete map of YC companies that took on cancer.

## Fields

- Kind: Company
- Last checked: 2026-09-10
- Tags: yc
- HQ: Berkeley, CA
- Type: imaging
- Website: https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/bikanta

## Sources

- Y Combinator profile: https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/bikanta

## Connected records

- fronts: [Diagnostics & Biomarkers](https://onco.cc/fronts/diagnostics/), [Imaging](https://onco.cc/fronts/imaging/)
- technologies: [Optical & fluorescence imaging](https://onco.cc/technologies/optical-imaging/)
- companies: [Y Combinator](https://onco.cc/companies/y-combinator/)

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JSON: https://onco.cc/api/v1/entities/bikanta.json