Xilis Raises $70 Million Series A Financing to Advance Diagnostic and Drug Discovery

This story was originally posted on the Duke Office of Translation & Commercialization site.

Xilis, Inc., a pioneering company using its MicroOrganoSphere (MOS) technology to guide precision therapy for cancer patients and accelerate drug discovery and development, today announced the close of a $70 million Series A financing. The round was led by Mubadala Capital, joined by new investors GV (formerly Google Ventures), LSP (one of Europe’s largest healthcare investment firms), Catalio Ventures, Duke Endowment, and Duke Angel Network. Current investors Felicis Ventures, Two Sigma Ventures, Pear VC, KdT Ventures, and Alix Ventures also participated.

Founded in 2019 by Dr. Xiling Shen, Dr.David Hsu, and Dr. Hans Clevers, Xilis is based on decades of biomedical, oncology, and stem cell research by its three co-founders. Dr. Clevers, a Breakthrough Prize winner, is the inventor and pioneer of the organoid technology. Dr. Shen and Dr. Hsu are accomplished engineering and medical professors at Duke University and experts in precision medicine. They have developed the scalable MOS technology to analyze patients’ own tumors in their native microenvironment – a breakthrough achievement.

“Our vision is to transform cancer care in diagnostics and reshape drug development by providing a technology for rapid therapeutic profiling,” said Xiling Shen, PhD, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Xilis. “The support provided by these world-class investors is an important milestone for our journey to transform cancer care and dramatically improve patient survival by enabling personalized precision oncology and bringing transformative medicines to patients faster and with higher success rates,” added Dr. Shen.

Hans Clevers, MD, PhD, Scientific Co-Founder and Principal Investigator at the Hubrecht Institute, Netherlands, stated, “Since my lab invented organoids a dozen years ago, we provided proof-of-concept for many applications yet the technology remained slow, complex, and expensive. Dr. Shen and Dr. Hsu’s invention of the MOS technology has torn down those hurdles and will accelerate its use both in the clinic and for drug discovery and development.”

Click here to read the full story on the OTC site.