US-based cancer screening technology startup Grail raised more than $100m in a series A round on Sunday co-led by biotechnology company Illumina and venture capital firm Arch Venture Partners. (Editor: subsequently increased to $125m.)
The round also featured Bezos Expeditions, the investment vehicle of e-commerce company Amazon’s chief executive Jeff Bezos, as well as VC firm Sutter Hill Ventures and Microsoft founder Bill Gates.
Illumina has retained a majority stake in Grail, which is developing cancer screening technology that will detect the disease through a blood test. The technology would enable detection even in patients who show no other symptoms.
Grail is currently in the process of recruiting a chief executive. (Editor: Jeff Huber from Google hired in February.)
Jay Flatley, chief executive of Illumina, and William Rastetter, Illumina’s chairman, will join Grail’s board of directors alongside Richard Klausner, formerly the chief medical officer of Illumina, and Robert Nelsen, managing director and co-founder of Arch Venture.
Mostafa Ronaghi, chief technology officer of Illumina, will join Grail’s advisory board together with a host of other oncology experts.
Flatley said: “We hope today is a turning point in the war on cancer. By enabling the early detection of cancer in asymptomatic individuals through a simple blood screen, we aim to massively decrease cancer mortality by detecting the disease at a curable stage.”