NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Grail has raised $300 million in a Series C financing round that was oversubscribed, according to the firm.
Ally Bridge Group led the round along with Hillhouse Capital Group and 6 Dimensions Capital. Blue Pool Capital, China Merchant Securities International, CRF Investment, HuangPu River Capital, ICBC International, Sequoia Capital China, and WuXi NextCODE also contributed.
This is Grail's third financing round since 2016, and it has raised more than $1.5 billion. The latest financing will support development and validation of its early cancer detection products.
Grail was launched in early 2016 by Illumina with $100 million in funding from that firm as well as Arch Venture Partners, Bezos Expeditions, Bill Gates, and Sutter Hill Ventures. It raised a further $900 million in a Series B round in early 2017 and used some of that money to buy back part of Illumina's stake in the firm.
Jennifer Cook, Grail's CEO, said in a statement that the firm has enrolled more than 73,000 participants in its two clinical studies and is "on track to complete both clinical studies this year." In addition, she said, Grail "recently reported data supporting the potential for development of a highly specific and sensitive blood test, and are now continuing our development programs to optimize and validate a product for early detection of multiple cancer types."
Grail President Ken Drazan added that the firm plans to launch its first product in Hong Kong this year for the early detection of nasopharyngeal cancer. A team from the Chinese University of Hong Kong described the test's analytical performance last week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences.
Rumors have been circulating in recent months that Grail plans to go public in Hong Kong, though a filing for such an offering has yet to materialize.Â