Damir Vrabac

Co-Founder @valarlabs

[Damir Vrabac @dvrabac]

@emilahlback crushed it

[Damir Vrabac @dvrabac]

@emkara @Standard_Cap Congrats Emir!!

[Jay Rughani @JayRughani]

We @a16z are thrilled to announce our Series A investment in @valarlabs, which is building AI tools to assist oncologists in cancer treatment decisions.

There are roughly 2 million new cancer diagnoses annually in the US alone.

Each diagnosis involves a biopsy of the patient's tumor laid onto a slide for histological classification by a pathologist. The patient's oncologist and care team recommend treatment options, but it often takes multiple rounds of therapy to identify one that works.

This can be a terrifying, painful, and costly process for patients.

And while oncologists have more treatment options to choose from than ever before, the rapidly increasing amount of data require new tools for optimal decisioning.

Valar Labs is developing a multi-modal AI diagnostic platform to reduce uncertainty in cancer treatment selection. Since leading their seed financing in 2022, we have been amazed by their execution velocity towards this important mission.

Today, we are proud to expand our partnership with Anirudh, Vish, Damir, and the Valar Labs team, alongside our friends at @DCVC and @pearvc.

@anirrjoshi @dvrabac @VisweshKrishna @pranavrajpurkar

@vintweeta, @hardimanjames, @JackBuendorf, @MarHershenson, @eddie_eltoukhy, @VivHo, @a16zBioHealth

[a16z Bio + Health @a16zBioHealth]

Every year, nearly 2M new cancer diagnoses occur in the US alone and each diagnosis involves histological classification by pathologists. What if AI could help us uncover hidden insights in these images, predicting disease progression and therapy responses? That is precisely what @valarlabs has set out to accomplish.

We are thrilled to announce our Seed and now Series A investment in Valar Labs, alongside terrific partners at @DCVC and @pearvc.

Read why we invested in Valar Labs from @vintweeta here: https://t.co/qJNPYkEDBT

And dig into their funding announcement here: https://t.co/Xg67tw9Oi0

Plus coverage from @TechCrunch here: https://t.co/zWsWjqXPOT

[Damir Vrabac @dvrabac]

Read more about our Series A and our story in our blogpost: https://t.co/wwLSNRRiS5, and check out our feature in TechCrunch by Devin Coldewey: https://t.co/BUkvw0XdnL

[Damir Vrabac @dvrabac]

We have many more exciting things on the horizon and are expanding our team across operations, commercial, clinical, and engineering. Join us to help build this future! https://t.co/9z2x2hD9FE

[Damir Vrabac @dvrabac]

Also super excited to welcome @vintweeta and @hardimanjames to our board and continue working closely with @MarHershenson, @JayRughani, @JackBuendorf, @eddie_eltoukhy, and @VivHo.

[Damir Vrabac @dvrabac]

Thrilled to be on this journey with my brilliant co-founders @anirrjoshi, @VisweshKrishna, and @pranavrajpurkar, and the entire Valar Team, along with all the dedicated physicians involved.

[Damir Vrabac @dvrabac]

We aim to provide every patient and their physician with predictive tests that determine the most effective treatment based on individual characteristics, thereby maximizing their chances of successfully fighting cancer.

[Damir Vrabac @dvrabac]

The funding will enable the commercial advancement of Vesta, and facilitate the expansion of our technology into other cancer types.

[Damir Vrabac @dvrabac]

Vesta, the world’s first AI test to predict treatment response in bladder cancer, marks our initial step towards this future vision.

[Damir Vrabac @dvrabac]

We started Valar with the mission to reduce the uncertainty of treatment decisions in cancer care.

[Damir Vrabac @dvrabac]

Proud to announce a big milestone at @valarlabs : $22 million Series A, co-led by @DCVC and @a16zBioHealth, with continued support from @PearVC.

Blogpost: https://t.co/woLsj5t5N5

[Valar Labs @valarlabs]

We're thrilled to collaborate with Dr. @ylotan and other esteemed urologists worldwide to validate #Vesta. Check out the interview from @GUOncologyNow, where Dr. Lotan discusses our international validation study. https://t.co/FSsCNGl8Mm

[Valar Labs @valarlabs]

Exciting news! Valar Labs is proud to announce #Vesta, the first histology-based test for predicting response to #BCG in #BladderCancer.

Press Release: https://t.co/FfLA7NIaOO

[a16z Bio + Health @a16zBioHealth]

Technological transformations in healthcare have consistently empowered physicians and improved patient care. Examples include electronic medical records, the democratization of genetic testing, and the discovery of so many biomarkers (both molecular and digital!) that can predict patient outcomes and help personalize patient care.

Recently, @vintweeta, general partner at a16z, explored these advancements at @WuXi_AppTec's Wuxi Global Forum, while discussing the state of innovation in 2024 and beyond. She highlighted the exciting work of a16z Bio + Health portfolio company @valarlabs in her remarks below: the team is combining AI and digital pathology to build software that oncologists can use as a diagnostic.

[Pranav Rajpurkar @pranavrajpurkar]

1/ 📢 New paper alert!

Pancreatic cancer lacks actionable biomarkers for precision therapy.

We developed an AI-derived histologic signature that can predict treatment outcomes for a specific chemotherapy from pancreatic tumor resections.
https://t.co/16fWSEKC2k

Key points ⬇️

[Valar Labs @valarlabs]

🚨 Excited to announce our work in AI prediction of gemcitabine backbone chemotherapy response in pancreatic cancer has been published in @CellRepMed

Read More: https://t.co/cdjHIp5U6j

[Valar Labs @valarlabs]

We are excited to present at the Innovation Nexus at the #AUA23 on our AI diagnostics in urology. Wonderful working with great collaborators @ylotan @SWilliams_MD @UrogerliMD @BladderCancerMD @UroCancerMD and many others on areas of high clinical need!

[Serina Chang @serinachang5]

Excited to announce new work to appear at @RealAAAI '23! We study the problem of geographic spillovers, where people cross county/state borders to circumvent local restrictions (think: COVID lockdowns, gun control). Joint work w @dvrabac, @jure, @jugander: https://t.co/gLAiQ3eyQe