Grail, the US-based cancer diagnostics startup spun out of genomics technology provider Illumina, has increased the size of its series B round to $1.21bn, according to a regulatory filing on Wednesday.
Founded in 2015, Grail has recruited thousands of patients for clinical tests that will be combined with high-intensity sequencing and data science technology in a bid to decipher the patterns necessary to detect several kinds of cancer, which could lead to earlier-stage diagnostic tests.
Venture capital firm Arch Venture Partners led the round’s $900m first tranche, which closed in March this year, with funding from corporates including internet group Tencent and e-commerce firm Amazon.
Pharmaceutical companies Bristol-Myers Squibb, Celgene, Merck & Co and Johnson & Johnson, also took part, the latter through its Johnson & Johnson UK Treasury unit, as did medical device maker Varian Medical Systems and McKesson Ventures, a subsidiary of pharmaceuticals supplier McKesson.
Grail added $73m the following month, according to an earlier regulatory filing, and the latest filing indicates there are now 58 participants in the round. Reports in January 2017 suggested the company was targeting a $1bn close, though it has not provided details of the latest funding.
The latest round comes after Grail raised $125m in a series A round co-led by Illumina and Arch Venture Partners that included VC firm Sutter Hill Ventures, entrepreneur Bill Gates and Bezos Expeditions, the investment vehicle for Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos.
Although Grail has not revealed the identity of the new backers, its website also lists GV, the corporate venturing subsidiary of internet technology provider Alphabet formerly known as Google Ventures, and investment firm Decheng Capital as investors.
A report late last month indicated the company was in talks with telecommunications firm SoftBank and sovereign wealth fund Mubadala Development Company concerning additional series B funding.