[Adobe]
In early 2022, secretive Altos Labs stunned with a record $3 billion launch to pursue anti-aging “cellular rejuvenation” amid rumors of Jeff Bezos’ backing.
But a roundup of the 25 private healthcare and biotech companies that raised the most money in recent decades reveals a landscape of grand ambitions to disrupt healthcare. There are also some cautionary tales.
Included in the mix is scandal-plagued and now-liquidated Theranos, which raised a total of $1.4 billion in the early 2000s from prominent investors by fraudulently claiming to have game-changing blood testing technology.
Another company facing scrutiny is Devoted Health, a Medicare Advantage insurer that raised $1.9 billion aiming to reinvent senior care through technology and patient-centered approaches. STAT, however, noted that the company has yet to turn a profit after five years. And then there is Grail, which developed a multi-cancer early detection test but faced major setbacks in Illumina’s attempted $8 billion acquisition. After the deal drew antitrust scrutiny and legal battles with regulators, Illumina plans to divest Grail as an independent company by mid-2024 to comply with orders.
Another theme for prominent private healthcare fundraisers is AI. Tempus, for instance, has built one of the world’s largest libraries of multimodal data, including more than 100 petabytes of curated clinical and molecular data. This dataset powers its AI platform. It has raised $1.345 billion to date. Meanwhile, XtalPi combines quantum physics, AI, cloud computing and robotic automation to bolster the efficiency and success rate of identifying novel drug compounds. It has raised $786.4 million in total funding. Generate Biomedicines uses machine learning to predict the structure and function of proteins and generate effective therapeutics more predictably, with $693 million in total funding. Other companies in the list focused on AI include cardiovascular disease-focused HeartFlow and newcomer Xaira Therapeutics, which uses AI to design novel proteins and therapeutics across multiple modalities. Xaira has a roster of prominent leaders in its board, including former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb; Stanford chemist, Nobel laureate, and recent Priestley Medalist Carolyn Bertozzi and former Johnson & Johnson CEO Alex Gorsky. Xaira’s CEO is Marc Tessier-Lavigne, who was formerly the chief scientific officer at Genentech.
The table below highlights the top 25 private healthcare and biotech companies, excluding companies that have since gone public such as Moderna, BioNTech, Crispr Therapeutics and bluebird bio:
| Company | Description | Industries | Headquarters | Founded | Total Funding (USD) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Altos Labs | Altos Labs focuses on cellular rejuvenation programming to restore cell health and resilience, to reverse disease to transform medicine. | Biopharma, Biotechnology, Health Care, Health Diagnostics, Medical | San Francisco, California | 2021 | $3,000,000,000 |
| 2. | Resilience | Resilience provides end-to-end biopharmaceutical manufacturing and development solutions. | Biopharma, Biotechnology, Health Care, Life Science, Pharmaceutical | La Jolla, California | 2020 | $2,515,000,000 |
| 3. | Grail | Grail develops a pan-cancer screening test designed to detect cancers at an early stage. | Biotechnology, Health Care, Health Diagnostics, Medical, Medical Device | Menlo Park, California | 2016 | $2,004,655,040 |
| 4. | Caris Life Sciences | Caris Life Sciences is a molecular science company that offers molecular profiling, tissue-based profiling, and testing services. | Biopharma, Biotechnology, Health Care, Life Science | Irving, Texas | 1996 | $1,690,000,000 |
| 5. | Intarcia Therapeutics | Intarcia Therapeutics develops therapies for diseases that require long-term chronic treatment. | Biotechnology, Health Care, Health Diagnostics, Medical Device, Personal Health | Hayward, California | 1997 | $1,683,530,937 |
| 6. | Theranos | Theranos is a biotech company that claims to develop a technology that facilitates the early detection and prevention of disease. | Biotechnology, Consumer, Health Care, Health Diagnostics | Palo Alto, California | 2003 | $1,368,500,318 |
| 7. | Freenome | Freenome is a biotechnology company with a comprehensive multiomics platform for cancer detection using a routine blood draw. | Biotechnology, Health Care, Health Diagnostics, Personal Health | South San Francisco, California | 2014 | $1,351,550,000 |
| 8. | Tempus | Tempus is a technology company advancing precision medicine through the practical application of artificial intelligence in healthcare. | Artificial Intelligence (AI), Biotechnology, Health Care, Machine Learning, Medical, Precision Medicine | Chicago, Illinois | 2015 | $1,345,000,000 |
| 9. | ElevateBio | ElevateBio is a biotechnology company that specializes in cell and gene-based therapies. | Alternative Medicine, Biotechnology, Information Technology | Waltham, Massachusetts | 2017 | $1,246,000,000 |
| 10. | Xaira Therapeutics | Xaira Therapeutics is an integrated biotechnology company driving advances in artificial intelligence. | Biotechnology, Health Care, Therapeutics | San Francisco, California | 2024 | $1,000,000,000 |
| 11. | Click Therapeutics | Click Therapeutics delivers safe and effective digital treatments to patients in need. | Biotechnology, Health Care, Medical Device, Pharmaceutical, Therapeutics | New York, New York | 2012 | $946,382,500 |
| 12. | HeartFlow | HeartFlow is a medical technology company that provides various methods of diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease. | Artificial Intelligence (AI), Biotechnology, Health Care, Health Diagnostics, Medical | Mountain View, California | 2010 | $792,722,908 |
| 13. | XtalPi | XtalPi is a pharmaceutical technology company that is working to reinvent drug discovery by enabling dry lab predictions with wet lab validation. | Artificial Intelligence (AI), Biotechnology, Pharmaceutical | Cambridge, Massachusetts | 2014 | $786,401,703 |
| 14. | Biosplice Therapeutics | Biosplice Therapeutics is in the medical research and development for tissue-level regeneration. | Biotechnology, Health Care, Life Science | San Diego, California | 2008 | $778,000,000 |
| 15. | Eikon Therapeutics | Eikon Therapeutics is a biopharmaceutical company that develops live-cell resolution microscopy and engineering for drug discovery. | Biotechnology, Health Care, Life Science, Medical | Hayward, California | 2019 | $772,000,000 |
| 16. | Rakuten Medical | Rakuten Medical is a biotechnology company that develops precision, cell-targeting investigational therapies. | Biotechnology, Health Care, Medical, Service Industry, Therapeutics | San Diego, California | 2010 | $737,591,700 |
| 17. | InSightec | InSightec develops and manufactures MR-guided ultrasound technology devices for image-guided acoustic surgery. | Biotechnology, Health Care, Manufacturing, Medical Device, Therapeutics | Tirat Carmel, Hefa, Israel | 1999 | $732,900,000 |
| 18. | Generate Biomedicines | Generate Biomedicines is a biotech focusing on using machine learning to generate novel protein-based therapeutics. | Biotechnology, Health Care, Medical, Product Research | Somerville, Massachusetts | 2018 | $693,000,000 |
| 19. | Neuralink | Neuralink develops a brain-machine interface that provides solutions for those with paralysis. | Biotechnology, Medical, Neuroscience, Robotics | Fremont, California | 2016 | $686,241,676 |
| 20. | RefleXion Medical | RefleXion Medical is a developer of biologically-guided radiotherapy systems for patients with cancer. | Biotechnology, Health Care, Medical, Medical Device, Therapeutics | Hayward, California | 2009 | $675,100,000 |
| 21. | Insitro | Insitro is a drug discovery and development startup that uses machine learning and biology to transform drug discovery. | Biotechnology, Health Care, Life Science, Machine Learning, Pharmaceutical, Therapeutics | South San Francisco, California | 2018 | $643,000,000 |
| 22. | Nimbus Therapeutics | Nimbus Therapeutics uses computational technology to create selective small molecule therapeutics. | Biotechnology, Health Care, Therapeutics | Boston, Massachusetts | 2009 | $637,000,000 |
| 23. | Mevion Medical Systems | Mevion Medical Systems develops radiation therapies for the treatment of cancer. | Biotechnology, Health Care, Therapeutics | Littleton, Massachusetts | 2004 | $627,320,853 |
| 24. | Kriya Therapeutics | Kriya Therapeutics is a biopharmaceutical company that develops gene therapies for ophthalmology, neurology, and metabolic diseases. | Biotechnology, Health Care, Life Science | Palo Alto, California | 2019 | $600,500,000 |
| 25. | Impulse Dynamics | Impulse Dynamics is a medical device company specializing in the treatment of chronic heart failure. | Biotechnology, Hospital, Medical, Medical Device | Marlton, New Jersey | 1996 | $543,635,181 |