May 12

May 12 Caris Life's cancer tests have big potential says Sixth Street's Vijay Mohan

Caris Life Sciences, which is developing tests for the early detection and treatment of cancer, announced today it received $830 million in a growth equity funding round.

Using molecular science and artificial intelligence, Caris’ tests allow oncologists to assess all 22,000 genes in both DNA and RNA, to identify relevant biomarkers and to deliver a comprehensive molecular profile of specific cancers. These help identify procedures to tackle cancer including developing customized treatment plans and recurrence monitoring.

“Caris has steadily advanced its position as the market-leading precision medicine (analyzing biomarkers in the patient’s genome) company,” Vijay Mohan, a Caris board member and co-founder and partner at Sixth Street, said in a statement.

Sixth Street, based in San Francisco, led today’s funding round which includes Fidelity Management, Canada Pension Plan and other investment funds. While the size of Sixth Street’s latest investment in Caris was not disclosed, in earlier rounds in 2018 and 2020 it invested a total of $225 million in the Irving, Texas based company.

Today’s investment round values Caris at $7.8 billion. It plans to use the new funds to continue commercial expansion, including the launch of an early detection blood-based test for every type of cancer. The company currently offers tests using solid biopsies.

With over 420 research sites, Caris also enables biopharma companies to quickly identify and enroll more patients in the clinical trials for their cancer drugs under development.

Sixth Street is a global investment firm with over $50 billion in assets under management. Besides healthcare, it invests in business services, consumer internet, energy, real estate, renewables, retail, software and technology, telecom and media businesses.

Founded in 2009, Sixth Street employs more than 320, including over 145 investment professionals operating from nine locations around the world.

In March this year, after eight, including six Asian women, were killed by an alleged racist in Atlanta, Mohan noted in a letter to his Sixth Street colleagues: “I’ve seen the impact on those close to me, including family members of Chinese descent. The sharp rise of anti-Asian hate crimes since the start of the pandemic has created a climate of fear, and has tapped into anti-Asian sentiment that has a long, significant, and largely unacknowledged history in the United States.”

Sixth Street contributed to groups which work to further anti-racist efforts across the United States.

Mohan oversees Sixth Street’s healthcare investing team. In addition to Caris, Mohan’s team has invested in pharmaceutical companies Biohaven, with a market value of $5.2 billion and Ironwood, valued at $1.9 billion; bio-pharma companies including Nektar with a market value of $3.2 billion and Clovis, $525 million; Immunogen, a bio-tech company with a market value of $1.2 billion; and DrFirst, a software solution for doctors and other healthcare providers.

Prior to co-founding Sixth Street in 2009, Mohan was a managing principal with Bardin Hill (Halcyon Asset Management). Before joining Bardin Hill in 2005, he worked in the Americas Special Situations Group at Goldman Sachs alongside many of Sixth Street ‘s co-founding partners.

Mohan began his career with Goldman Sachs in the Technology, Media and Telecom Group of the Investment Banking Division. He currently serves as Chair of the Board for the Bay Area Discovery Museum. He received a B.A. in Economics, summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from Columbia University.

Today’s Sixth Street led funding round in Caris is in preparation for its listing as a public company next year, according to media reports.

Mohan expects Caris to continue pursuing new initiatives in blood-based molecular science profiling, while expanding the application of its artificial intelligence platform. He believes that “Caris is the highest-quality platform in this revolutionary sector."

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