Delfi and Earli series A rounds show there’s room for new entrants in early cancer detection

The debut of two more venture-backed companies developing early cancer detection tests suggests there is still appetite for new approaches, even as bigger players consolidate via M&A and prepare for commercial launch.

Delfi Diagnostics Inc. raised an OrbiMed-led $100 million series A round to develop a test based on fragmentation patterns in plasma cell-free DNA (cfDNA), while Earli Inc. raised $40 million in support of its “synthetic biopsy” imaging assay in a round led by Khosla Ventures...