PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Valar Labs, the developer of computational histology AI (CHAI) tests for predicting response to cancer therapies, announced a $22 million Series A financing. The funding follows Valar Labs’ completion of a recent international, multi-institution validation study and subsequent launch of Vesta, the first AI-based diagnostic test to predict response to first line treatment in bladder cancer.

加利福尼亚州帕洛阿尔托（商业新闻短讯）——瓦拉尔实验室（Valar Labs）是预测癌症治疗反应的计算组织学AI（CHAI）测试的开发人员，宣布了2200万美元的a系列融资。Valar实验室完成了最近的一项国际多机构验证研究，随后推出了Vesta，这是第一个基于人工智能的诊断测试，用于预测对膀胱癌一线治疗的反应。

The Series A financing round was led by leading venture capital firms DCVC and Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) Bio + Health with participation from Pear VC. Vineeta Agarwala, MD, PhD, General Partner at a16z Bio + Health, and James Hardiman, General Partner at DCVC, will be joining the Board of Directors..

A轮融资由领先的风险投资公司DCVC和Andreessen Horowitz（a16z）Bio+Health牵头，Pear VC参与。a16z Bio+Health普通合伙人Vineeta Agarwala，MD，PhD和DCVC普通合伙人James Hardiman将加入董事会。

“We see Valar as a leader in an emerging group of TechMed startups that harness AI and the power of data to augment physicians’ capabilities,” said James Hardiman, general partner at DCVC. “Histology has always been one of the keys to diagnosing cancer, but Valar Labs is showing that there are unexpected depths in the digital slides pathologists review every day.

DCVC的普通合伙人詹姆斯·哈迪曼（JamesHardiman）表示：“我们认为瓦拉（Valar）是新兴科技初创公司中的领导者，这些公司利用人工智能和数据的力量来增强医生的能力。”。“组织学一直是诊断癌症的关键之一，但瓦拉尔实验室（Valar Labs）显示，病理学家每天审查的数字幻灯片都有意想不到的深度。

And bladder cancer is only the beginning; we can’t wait to see where they take the technology next.”.

膀胱癌只是开始；我们迫不及待地想看看他们下一步将把这项技术带到哪里。”

Valar Labs was founded to reduce uncertainty in cancer treatment decisions. “Every day, oncologists are faced with challenging decisions for millions of cancer patients to determine which treatment pathway is most likely to be effective for a given patient. At Valar Labs, our aim is to provide every oncologist and cancer patient around the world with diagnostics that can help inform these critical decisions,” said the founders in a blog post.

Valar实验室的成立是为了减少癌症治疗决策的不确定性。“每天，肿瘤学家都面临着数百万癌症患者的挑战性决定，以确定哪种治疗途径最有可能对特定患者有效。在瓦拉尔实验室，我们的目标是为世界各地的每一位肿瘤学家和癌症患者提供诊断，以帮助他们做出这些关键决定，”创始人在博客中表示。

They added, “Over the last couple of years, we have been able to demonstrate that quantitative AI analysis of H&E stained tumor histology slides can prognosticate outcomes and predict response to treatment. We have assembled a cohort of 1000+ patients with bladder cancer across 4 continents, and published our analysis showing that the Vesta assay can identify patients who would have more aggressive disease progression under standard of care treatment regimens, and who could benefit from other earlier interventions.

他们补充道：“在过去的几年中，我们已经能够证明对H＆E染色的肿瘤组织学载玻片进行定量AI分析可以预测结果并预测对治疗的反应。我们已经在四大洲收集了1000多名膀胱癌患者的队列，并发表了我们的分析，显示Vesta分析可以确定在标准护理治疗方案下疾病进展更积极的患者，以及可以从其他早期干预中受益的患者。

Vesta is the first-ever, AI-based oncology test to be clinically offered in this disease and we are incredibly excited about the impact it could have for patients and providers. We have also demonstrated that Valar’s approach generalizes to several other tumor types (such as pancreatic cancer) through multiple publications and data that we have been fortunate to present alongside our collaborators at national oncology conferences over the past few years.”.

Vesta是临床上首次针对这种疾病提供的基于人工智能的肿瘤学测试，我们对它可能对患者和提供者产生的影响感到无比兴奋。我们还证明，Valar的方法通过多种出版物和数据推广到其他几种肿瘤类型（如胰腺癌），我们有幸在过去几年中与我们的合作者一起在国家肿瘤学会议上发表这些出版物和数据。”

The Vesta validation study of CHAI biomarkers was recently announced by the company and presented at the American Urological Association (AUA) 2024 Annual Meeting. The study demonstrated the biomarkers’ ability to outperform commonly used clinical parameters and demonstrated significant predictive ability across all relevant patient demographics..

该公司最近宣布了对CHAI生物标志物的维斯塔验证研究，并在美国泌尿外科协会（AUA）2024年年会上发表。该研究证明了生物标志物优于常用临床参数的能力，并在所有相关患者人口统计学中表现出显着的预测能力。

“The introduction of Vesta is a paradigm shift for how we can best serve our bladder cancer patients. Its ability to predict response to BCG treatment is invaluable particularly amidst the current nationwide BCG shortage. This ensures every patient receives personalized and highly effective treatment,” said Dr.

“维斯塔的推出是我们如何更好地为膀胱癌患者服务的一个范式转变。它预测卡介苗治疗反应的能力非常宝贵，特别是在目前全国卡介苗短缺的情况下。这确保了每位患者都能获得个性化和高效的治疗，”Dr。

Jay Shah, a urologist at Stanford Healthcare..

斯坦福医疗保健公司泌尿科医生杰伊·沙阿。

Since their announcement of a $4 million seed financing led by a16z in 2022, Valar Labs has published over a dozen peer reviewed publications and abstracts demonstrating that the technology they have developed can be used to accurately predict patient outcomes on several therapeutic regimens, across several major cancer types.

自2022年宣布由a16z牵头的400万美元种子融资以来，Valar实验室已发表了十多篇同行评审的出版物和摘要，证明他们开发的技术可用于准确预测几种主要癌症类型的几种治疗方案的患者预后。

Valar diagnostic tests could thus inform precision selection of treatments for a broad range of cancer patients..

因此，Valar诊断测试可以为广泛的癌症患者提供精确的治疗选择。

“Valar Labs could transform how we approach cancer treatment decisions for a large number of patients today,” said Vineeta Agarwala, MD, PhD, general partner at a16z Bio + Health. “By combining readily available tissue histology images with AI-driven insights, Valar is enabling physicians to deliver the precision oncology care that every patient deserves: matching the right treatment, to the right patient, at the right time.”.

a16z Bio+Health的普通合伙人Vineeta Agarwala医学博士说：“Valar实验室可以改变我们今天为大量患者做出癌症治疗决策的方式。”。“通过将现成的组织组织学图像与AI驱动的见解相结合，Valar使医生能够提供每位患者应得的精确肿瘤学护理：在正确的时间为正确的患者提供正确的治疗。”

About Valar Labs:

关于Valar实验室：

Valar Labs is a precision medicine company developing computational histology AI tests for predicting response to cancer therapies. Our goal is to provide every patient and physician the ability to select the best treatment based on the patient's tumor biology. Our bladder cancer test, Vesta, predicts which patients are unlikely to benefit from BCG therapy and provides detailed risk stratification for recurrence and progression.

Valar Labs是一家精密医学公司，开发计算组织学AI测试以预测对癌症治疗的反应。我们的目标是为每位患者和医生提供根据患者的肿瘤生物学选择最佳治疗的能力。我们的膀胱癌测试Vesta预测哪些患者不太可能从BCG治疗中受益，并为复发和进展提供详细的风险分层。

Vesta is clinically available through our CLIA-certified laboratory in Houston, Texas and can be ordered online. For more information, please visit www.valarlabs.com and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter..

Vesta可通过我们在德克萨斯州休斯顿的CLIA认证实验室进行临床销售，并可在线订购。有关更多信息，请访问www.valarlabs.com，并在LinkedIn和Twitter上关注我们。

About DCVC:

关于DCVC：

DCVC is deep tech venture capital. Over more than a dozen years, the firm has backed brilliant entrepreneurs using computational approaches to solve trillion-dollar problems in the real world across a broad set of industries, especially those that haven't seen material progress in decades. With billions of dollars of assets under management, DCVC builds long-term relationships with the founders it backs.

DCVC是深度科技风险投资公司。十多年来，该公司一直支持杰出的企业家使用计算方法解决现实世界中各种行业的万亿美元问题，尤其是那些几十年来没有取得实质性进展的行业。DCVC管理着数十亿美元的资产，与它支持的创始人建立了长期的关系。

The firm has been with many of its companies from their very start — and through to their recognition by the public markets as category-defining businesses. For more information, please visit www.dcvc.com, or follow us on LinkedIn or Twitter @DCVC..

该公司从一开始就与许多公司合作 — 直到它们被公共市场认可为类别定义企业。有关更多信息，请访问www.dcvc.com，或在LinkedIn或Twitter@dcvc上关注我们。

About Andreessen Horowitz:

关于安德森·霍洛维茨：

Andreessen Horowitz (aka a16z) is a venture capital firm that backs bold entrepreneurs building the future through technology. We are stage agnostic. We invest in seed to venture to growth-stage technology companies, across AI, bio + healthcare, consumer, crypto, enterprise, fintech, games, infrastructure, and companies building toward American dynamism.

AndreessenHorowitz（又名a16z）是一家风险投资公司，支持大胆的企业家通过技术建设未来。我们不分阶段。我们投资种子公司，将其发展为成长阶段的技术公司，涉及人工智能、生物+医疗保健、消费者、加密、企业、金融科技、游戏、基础设施以及朝着美国活力发展的公司。

a16z has $56B in assets under management across multiple funds..

a16z在多个基金中管理着560亿美元的资产。