South Korean AI startup Lunit secures investment from Guardant Health
Lunit, an AI startup in AI-powered cancer solutions, announced a strategic investment of $26 million from a precision oncology company, Guardant Health.
The deal, which includes the investment made by Guardant Health and also a groundbreaking collaboration between a liquid biopsy company and a medical AI startup, is intended to help reshape and innovate the precision oncology landscape.
Lunit has closed its Series C Tranche B funding round with the investment from Guardant Health. Lunit is expected to file for an initial public offering on the Korean Stock Exchange later this year.
Brandon Suh, CEO, Lunit: "We believe that AI in the field of medicine is an inevitable future to come. As one of the early starters and front-runners in this new and innovative field, we have been validating the effectiveness of Lunit SCOPE through various studies, and now we are pushing to show its value in clinical research and real practice. We are more than delighted to announce the investment and collaboration with Guardant Health. With our AI technology in tissue phenomics and Guardant Health's commitment to advancing our work, we are looking forward to making impactful changes in cancer diagnosis and treatment."
At the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2021 annual meeting, Lunit presented that its tissue analysis platform, Lunit SCOPE, was able to find 50% more patients who would respond to immunotherapy, compared to traditional diagnostic pathology.1 Lunit has been presenting its findings at ASCO and American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) since 2019.
Helmy Eltoukhy, CEO, Guardant Health: "Artificial intelligence is rapidly gaining ground in cancer research and it's exciting to see the excellent progress Lunit has made in developing innovative AI-powered radiology and pathology solutions that have the potential to significantly improve the diagnoses and treatment of cancer. We're very impressed with Lunit's approach and believe this investment will help them advance their important AI work for eventual clinical use. Through this investment, we also expect to utilize their AI platform to usher in new precision oncology products that contribute in a meaningful way to improving cancer care for patients."
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