Guardant Health & Pear

Guardant Health’s (Nasdaq: GH) mission is to help patients at all stages of cancer live longer and healthier lives—using blood tests to unlock insights that help find, treat, and monitor the disease.

We first partnered with Helmy and AmirAli, Guardant’s founders, in 2013. They knew precision oncology had the power to transform the fight against cancer, and they had a clear vision for how to do it. What they needed was a partner willing to back them.

That’s where Pear came in.

When you enter a field with enormous need and a wide technology gap, the naysayers come out in force. Blood-based cancer tests were a futuristic concept at the time, and Guardant was taking a real risk trying to bring them into a clinical setting. We understood the value of what they were building and partnered with them to make it a reality for patients and providers.

Biotech is different. It’s more capital intensive than most categories, revenue takes years to generate, and the work requires deep domain expertise. We supported Helmy and AmirAli as they spent time in the lab developing the next generation of blood-based tests, providing the network and funding they needed to grow. They’ve since launched 15 innovative products to improve cancer outcomes at every stage of the disease.

We’re proud to have supported them in every round of financing through their IPO in 2018.