Early-stage Cancer Screening Company Freenome Closes $160 Million Capital Raise with CEC Capital Group participating as an investor

On July 24th, 2019, Freenome, a well-known US company in the field of cancer screening, announced the completion of a USD 160 million Series B round of financing. The round of financing was led by RA Capital Management and Polaris Partners. CEC Capital Group participated as an investor in the round.

Other follow investors included Perceptive Advisors, funds and accounts managed by T. Rowe Price Associates, Roche Venture Fund, Kaiser Permanente Ventures, and American Cancer Society’s BrightEdge Ventures. Freenome’s existing investors also participated including Andreessen Horowitz, GV (formerly Google Ventures), Data Collective Venture Capital, Section 32, and Verily Life Sciences (a subsidiary of the Alphabet Group focused on life sciences and healthcare).

The close of this round will bring Freenome’s total financing to date to USD 238 million. Freenome will use the proceeds to further the development of its early-stage cancer detection blood testing technologies, which is based on a multiomics platform. Freenome’s multiomics blood test platform can be used to screen for multiple forms of cancer and to develop novel cancer drugs. Freenome plans to conduct a key validation study on its early-stage colorectal cancer detection technologies. Utilizing a parallel review process, Freenome will submit the relevant applications to the USFDA and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). In addition, Freenome is also planning to further improve its laboratory infrastructure and software systems to meet future demands.

“We are fortunate to have an experienced and proven group of biotech and healthcare investors who share our mission of making early detection of cancer a routine part of patient care,” shared Gabe Otte, CEO of Freenome, “In addition, we are excited to welcome several strategic investors who are committed to our mission. Each brings insight, expertise, and partnership opportunities to accelerate our path to positively impacting patient care.”

“Freenome’s work holds much promise and potential,” explained Bob Crutchfield, Managing Director of the American Cancer Society’s philanthropic impact fund, BrightEdge. “We hope our investment will help lead to accelerated patient access to this technology and better outcomes for cancer patients.”

“The most affordable and effective treatment for metastatic cancer is to detect it early, when the tumor is still small and local, and we can cure it with surgery. It’s with that vision that we have invested in Freenome,” said Peter Kolchinsky, Managing Partner of RA Capital. “Freenome’s multiomics platform is unlike anything we’ve seen, and we believe it can unlock the promise of using blood tests to detect and treat cancer early.”

Freenome’s multiomics platform detects key biological signals from routine blood tests. The platform integrates assays for cfDNA, methylation, and proteins with advanced computational biology and machine learning techniques to identify additive signatures that improve the accuracy of early cancer detection. Instead of relying solely on tumor-derived markers, which may miss the earliest signs of cancer, Freenome’s strategy incorporates a multidimensional view of both tumor- and immune-derived signatures. Freenome’s first cancer test will screen for colorectal cancer—the second deadliest form of cancer in the United States. When identified at an early stage, 90 percent of colorectal cancer patients can live for at least five more years, compared to a mere 14 percent of patients whose colorectal cancer was detected at later stages.

Founded in 2000, CEC Capital Group is China’s leading investment bank focused on China’s new economy. CEC Capital Group has branches in Beijing and Shanghai. Its US affiliate, China eCapital Partners, LLC has offices in Los Angeles and San Francisco. CEC Capital Group entered the asset management business in 2014 and is currently managing an RMB fund and a US dollar fund. CEC Capital Group has previously invested in several outstanding Chinese companies including Miss Fresh, Arrail Dental, Righton Biotechnology, Bona Film Group, and The Beast. CEC Capital Group has also made investments in Emerald Labs, a leading US-based centralized lab services provider.

About Freenome                        

Freenome is a biotechnology company that has pioneered the most comprehensive multiomics platform for early cancer detection. By combining deep expertise in molecular biology with advanced computational biology and machine learning techniques to recognize disease-associated patterns among billions of circulating, cell-free biomarkers, Freenome is developing simple and accurate blood testing methods for early cancer detection. Freenome plans to integrate this operational approach into medical systems to enable a feedback loop between machine learning and medical science. Examples of Freenome’s novel research include advancing the fields “Understanding of Using Machine Learning for Early-stage Colorectal Cancer Detection” featured at Digestive Disease Week and using “cfDNA Fragment Coverage to Predict Gene Expression” featured at American Association for Cancer Research’s Annual Meeting. Freenome is headquartered in San Francisco, California. For more information on Freenome, please visit www.freenome.com

About Freenome’s AI-PATTERNS Oncology Studies

By using AI to recognize disease-associated patterns among billions of circulating, cell-free biomarkers, Freenome is developing simple and accurate blood tests for early-stage cancer detection. Freenome’s AI-PATTERNS are a series of rigorous clinical development and validation studies across a diverse range of cancer types. The first in the series, AI-EMERGE, is focused on colorectal cancer.

About CEC Capital Group

Founded in 2000, CEC Capital Group has branches in Beijing and Shanghai. Its US affiliate, China eCapital Partners, LLC, has offices in Los Angeles and San Francisco. On the asset management side, CEC Capital Group is currently managing an RMB fund and a US dollar fund. The fund invests in outstanding enterprises in the TMT and healthcare industries including ARRAIL Dental, Miss Fresh, and the Beast. CEC Capital Group has also made investments in Emerald Labs, a leading US-based centralized lab services provider.