HistoWiz, a leading digital histopathology service company, announced the closing of its $32 million Series A financing. The company has provided automated histology for over 1000 customers in academia and industry and built PathologyMapTM, an intelligent tissue platform that hosts the world’s largest preclinical pathology database. By focusing on automation and AI, HistoWiz turns tissue specimens into publication quality digital slides online in as little as 48 hours. PathologyMapTM provides customers with online slide viewing, tagging, storage, collaboration, diagnosis, analysis and the ability to search for pathology data. The round was led by Vivo Capital and included other investors venBio, Asahi Kasei and Jon Oringer.
“Our mission is to help researchers find cures by accelerating histopathology and enabling global collaboration,” said Dr. Ke Cheng, Founder and CEO of HistoWiz, “The Series A financing will allow HistoWiz to expand our services, build a flagship lab with the latest tissue-sectioning and embedding robots, grow our team to better serve clients, and continue to innovate in this field. We are grateful for the support of our investors to further make an impact within the research community.”
“We are honored to partner with HistoWiz. The company has identified a major market need and has built a stellar team and tech-enabled service platform that researchers from leading academic and pharmaceutical institutions rely on. Investing in the team, technology, and lab infrastructure will enable HistoWiz to strengthen its market-leading position in the years ahead,” said Nathan Dau, Executive Director at Vivo Capital.
“Histopathology capabilities are essential to most innovative biopharma companies. We believe Histowiz provides the highest quality, most efficient and most comprehensive service offering to biotech institutions, including multiple companies within our portfolio,” stated Aaron Royston, Managing Partner at venBio. “We’ve been impressed by HistoWiz’s rapid growth and are excited to help the company broaden its services to help more customers around the world.”
About HistoWiz
HistoWiz automates histopathology with rapid turnaround time for researchers in academia, biotech and pharma. The company processes tissue specimens and digitizes the results, hosting client’s data on a proprietary platform, PathologyMapTM. This online platform contains the largest collection of preclinical pathology data crowdsourced from the scientific community and the first network of top pathologists for on-demand diagnosis. Through automation and AI, HistoWiz aims to become the global leader in histopathology to accelerate cancer research and drug discovery.
About Vivo
Founded in 1996, Vivo Capital is a leading global healthcare investment firm with a diverse, multi-fund investment platform in venture capital, growth equity, buyout, and public equities. Vivo has approximately $5.8 billion in assets under management and has invested in over 290 public and private companies worldwide. Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, with additional offices in Asia, the Vivo team consists of over 50 multi-disciplinary professionals including physicians, scientists, entrepreneurs, operating executives, and industry experts. Vivo invests broadly in healthcare across all fund strategies, including in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, life science tools, diagnostics, health tech and healthcare services.
About venBio
venBio Partners is a life sciences investment firm that partners with industry leaders to build innovative medicines and technologies, with a focus on novel therapeutics for unmet medical needs.
About Asahi Kasei
Founded in 1922, Asahi Kasei has consistently grown through the proactive transformation of its portfolio and contributes to life and living by providing solutions to the world’s challenges through its three business sectors: Materials, Homes, and Healthcare. Asahi Kasei Corporate Venture Capital was established in 2008 to invest in innovative global companies of strategic interest. Its mission is to create new, long term business opportunities while leveraging Asahi Kasei’s broad expertise and global network to help portfolio companies grow.
