US biotech firm Guardant Well being (Nasdaq: GH) has acquired Israeli exact liquid biopsy firm MetaSight Diagnostics for a right away fee of $59 million and an extra $90 million in milestone funds. The acquisition was revealed in Guardant Well being’s fourth quarter outcomes. The milestone funds embody receiving regulatory approvals and gross sales thresholds. The corporate has developed exams for correct early prognosis of most cancers that might price just a few {dollars}.
MetaSight was based by Prof. Tomer Shlomi from the Technion along with aMoon Fund as a part of the aMoon Velocity program. The corporate makes use of multiomics applied sciences, to investigate cells utilizing completely different approaches, and mixing info with AI, to diagnose colon most cancers and metabolic issues in liver operate. The expertise is within the scientific trial stage.
The corporate developed the expertise primarily based on the Maccabi Well being Fund database.
The exit is modest however gives quick and good-looking returns for aMoon.. MetaSight was based in 2020 and has raised $20 million thus far. Amongst its buyers are the US fund ARC and Saban Ventures. The corporate has places of work in Rehovot that may grow to be Guardant’s first improvement web site in Israel.
Dr. Yaron Daniely, who leads the aMoon Velocity program, tells “Globes,” “Guardant is a number one firm within the discipline of most cancers prognosis utilizing superior strategies. Their market worth is about $13.7 billion and so they recorded income of a couple of billion {dollars} this 12 months.”
Discovered a standard language
How did the connection with the corporate come about?
“Guardant acknowledged the corporate’s benefits after we offered our exams at conferences that allow speedy prognosis at costs of some {dollars} per check. They talked about of their convention name that they’d reviewed dozens of corporations within the discipline and selected our expertise from them.”
“We additionally selected them,” provides Dr. Daniely, “We obtained inquiries from a number of corporations. With Guardant, we discovered widespread floor. The corporate’s cofounders and co-CEOs Helmy Eltoukhy and AmirAli Talasaz, are former Iranians, so there was a cultural connection between us. They based the corporate in 2012 and nonetheless function it with an entrepreneurial method. They drastically worth the corporate’s workers in Israel, and because the acquisition, they’ve employed workers and expanded the laboratory. That is their first improvement middle not solely in Israel, however that is the primary time they’ve outdoors the US.”
Nonetheless, Danieli says with a smile: “That does not imply that the negotiations have been straightforward.”
How was the corporate based?
“Prof. Shlomi approached us after creating a technique to considerably scale back the associated fee and pace up diagnostics utilizing a mass spectrometer. This methodology allowed us to diagnose samples at very excessive resolutions. We teamed up with Maccabi and created a database of almost 1,000,000 samples coded utilizing the MetaSight methodology. Primarily based on this, we developed the colon most cancers check.
“The check is about two to a few years away from finishing scientific trials, and if these are profitable, then the extra quantity shall be paid within the deal.”
Printed by Globes, Israel enterprise information – en.globes.co.il – on February 21, 2026.
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