South San Francisco-based biotech company Freenome announced the close of a $160 million funding round, with participation from Kaiser Permanente Ventures, the American Cancer Society's BrightEdge Ventures and Alphabet's GV and Verily Life Sciences.
The Series B financing will be used to further develop Freenome's blood test for early cancer detection. The startup uses an artificial intelligence-powered multiomics platform to analyze routine blood draws for often-missed biomarkers of early-stage cancer. Development of the platform has so far centered on use in detecting colorectal cancer.
Beyond further refinement of the platform, Freenome will also conduct a validation study to be submitted to the FDA and CMS for review and, eventually, expand the test to detect other forms of cancer and disease, according to CEO Gabe Otte.
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