Grail Inc, the cancer-detection startup backed by two world’s wealthiest men is planning to raise $1 billion to push growth much ahead of its Initial Public Offering in Hong Kong.
The very first product that will focus on screening test for nasopharyngeal cancer will be launched this year informed Grail Incorporation.Nasopharyngeal cancer is a type of cancer prevalent in Southeast Asia and southern China
The company which is backed by Amazon Incorporation founder Jeff Bezos and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is working on advisers on the new round that is ongoing a preliminary phase and might change in timings and date, said two people involved with the matter.
Charlotte Arnold, a spokeswoman for Menlo Park at Grail said that the company doesn’t comment on market speculation or its financing plans.
Grail Inc. is a startup that has been create by Illumina Inc, a U.S listed generic sequencing firm. It has recently completed a funding round that turned out to be huge raising $900 million in the first close of a Series B financing, according to data compiled by sources.
Other investors of the company include Johnson & Johnson Innovation, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co, Celgene Corp as well as China biggest internet giant Tencent Holdings Ltd, as per the website.
The company is actively working on its goal to create a “pan-cancer” screening test that will help to diagnose the disease at a very rudimentary stage while patients have no symptoms according to a 2016 interview with Jay Flatley, Illumina’s chief executive officer at the time.