On January 12, 2021, bioengineering firm Earli, which developed in stealth a new platform technology that will allow clinicians to exactly locate early cancers so they can be treated, announced that it has raised $40 million in Series A funding. The financing was led by Khosla Ventures, along with Perceptive Advisors, Casdin Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Sands Capital, and top individuals including Midas List investors Jim Breyer/Breyer Capital and Rahul Mehta, Goldman Sachs’s former CFO and CIO R. Martin Chavez, and biomedical device entrepreneur Shlomo Ben-Haim. Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati advised Earli on IP matters related to the transaction.

Using technology licensed from Stanford University, Earli is creating a new platform technology called a “Synthetic Biopsy,” which uses genetic constructs to force cancer to produce biomarkers not normally expressed in the human body. The Synthetic Biopsy locates early cancer, which then enables actionable therapies. Earli previously raised $19.5 million in a Seed investment in 2018, led by Andreessen Horowitz’s a16z Bio Fund and Marc Benioff, and supported by Menlo Ventures and ZhenFund.

“This round of funding from some of the world’s leading biotech investors comes right in time for Earli’s human clinical trials to begin, and on the way towards commercialization to help patients,” said Cyriac Roeding, CEO and co-founder of Earli. “Our commitment is to every person and family that has been impacted by cancer. By localizing cancer early so the disease can be treated, we can and will change the statistics.”

The Wilson Sonsini team that advised Earli on IP matters related to the transaction includes Vern Norviel, Ali Alemozafar, Rona Lamiquiz, and Brandon Tavshanjian.

For more information, please see Earli's press release.