New Haven-Based, Yale Supported, Revalia Bio To Launch Human Data Trials Platform

NEW HAVEN, CT — New Haven-based Revalia Bio announced a $14.5M seed round to launch its Human Data Trials platform — a new category of pre-clinical research that gives drug developers early, predictive insights from real, functional human organs.

Revalia Bio is part of Yale Ventures, launched by Yale University in 2022, it seeks to "foster and accelerate a vibrant entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem that increases support, resources, and opportunities for Yale innovators—faculty and students—as they translate their ideas and discoveries into new ventures that will positively impact the world's greatest challenges."

According to Yale Ventures, Revalia Bio "aims to revolutionize the process of biomedical innovation by enabling catalytic failure in real world, human models of disease."

"These models derive from deceased donor human organs that are deemed unsuitable for clinical transplantation but still have massive potential to provide new insights in to human disease and response to therapy," it's noted on Yale Ventures website.

According to the company bio, Revalia was founded by a "multidisciplinary team of scientists, entrepreneurs, and operators."

A former tenure track professor at Yale University, the company's CEO Greg Tietjen, ran a renowned academic lab that was a world-leader in perfusion science.

With a PhD in human organ perfusion from the University of Cambridge, Jenna DiRito brings deep experience in human organ research infrastructure.

Kourosh Saeb-Parsy, Peter Buniak, and Helen Hughes add clinical and operational depth to the team. Milad Alucozai, a neuroscientist and first investor, joined the company to help scale it.

According to a news release on the new seed funding, "Despite billions spent on R&D each year, more than 90 percent of drug candidates fail to reach market approval."

"The old model of drug development is broken - decade-long timelines, 90 percent failure rates, and billion-dollar costs are no longer sustainable," Tietjen said. "We're building a new paradigm that allows us to transform the loss of one patient into the future of human-centered development - a new model grounded in real human data, not approximations."

The seed round was co-led by America's Frontier Fund and Sierra Ventures with participation from Roger Ferguson, former Vice Chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve and a member of the Board of Directors at Alphabet, and other existing investors. This brings Revalia's total funding to $19.5 million.

For more information, visit https://revaliabio.com.