Chinese VCs join $300m round for US, Hong Kong-based Grail
Ally Bridge Group, Hillhouse Capital and 6 Dimensions Capital have co-led a $300 million Series C round for Grail, a biotechnology development firm based in Hong Kong and the US.
A number of other Chinese investors participated in the funding round, according to a release, including Blue Pool Capital, Sequoia Capital China, Huangpu River Capital, China Merchant Securities International and WuXi Nextcode, a genetic analysis subsidiary of Chinese pharmaceutical company WuXi PharmaTech. Grail will use the new capital to support development and validation of products in its clinical research program.
Founded in 2016, Grail focuses on early detection of cancer through the development of blood tests with high degrees of sensitivity and specificity. The company is currently conducting two large-scale clinical studies; one aims to enroll more than 15,000 people with and without cancer for long-term genome analysis, while the other plans to study 120,000 women diagnosed with breast cancer. Grail hopes to complete enrolment on both studies this year.
The new funding round brings Grail’s total capital raised to more than $1.3 billion. The company spun out from US-based gene sequencing technology developer Illumina in 2016, raising $100 million in Series A funding from the parent company along with Arch Venture Partners, Sutter Hill Ventures, Bezos Expeditions – the family office of Jeff Bezos – and Bill Gates. A $900 million Series B round followed in 2017 with participation by Arch, Amazon, Tencent and several pharmaceutical companies.
“We are fortunate to partner with new international investors who share our vision of delivering early detection products to people globally,” said Ken Drazan, president of Grail. “Many of our new investors have a focus in Asia, which we believe is a natural fit as we plan to grow our capabilities and operations in the region, following the planned launch of our first product for early detection of nasopharyngeal cancer in Hong Kong this year.”
In a separate statement, Ally Bridge founder and CEO Frank Yu called Grail “the most strategic transaction for Ally Bridge” since the take-private of WuXi PharmaTech in 2015. WuXi Biologics, as the company is now known, relisted in Hong Kong last year, raising HK$3.97 billion ($510 million) in its IPO.
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