Revalia Bio announced a $14.5 million seed funding round to support the launch of Human Data Trials, a new category of preclinical research that provides drug developers with predictive insights from functional human organs. The 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 Alphabet board member, bringing the company's total funding to $19.5 million.
Addressing Drug Development's Translation Problem
The pharmaceutical industry faces a critical challenge: despite billions spent on R&D annually, more than 90% of drug candidates fail to reach market approval. A key factor in this failure rate is the poor translation from preclinical models to human biology, as animal models and in vitro systems often fall short in predicting therapeutic behavior in real patients.
"The old model of drug development is broken - decade-long timelines, 90% failure rates, and billion-dollar costs are no longer sustainable," said Greg Tietjen, co-founder and CEO of Revalia Bio. "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."
Human Data Trials Platform
Revalia's approach centers on rigorous testing conducted on perfused human organs maintained under clinical conditions. The company enables biotech and pharmaceutical companies to evaluate new therapies using data from real human organs, revived and sustained through proprietary perfusion technology. These organs are donated with informed consent from families and would otherwise be unusable for clinical transplant.
"We see every donated organ as a legacy," said Kourosh Saeb-Parsy, Chief Medical Officer at Revalia Bio. "Our job is to turn that gift into progress-not just for one trial, but for a new opportunity for developing life-saving medicines."
The platform unifies data from perfused human organs, donor medical histories, and high-resolution digital analytics through its Human Data Stack, delivering translatable insights across discovery, safety, biodistribution, and efficacy. Through partnerships with academic medical centers and organ procurement organizations, Revalia repurposes donated, non-transplantable organs into research systems that accelerate therapeutic discovery.
Commercial Progress and Breakthrough Achievements
Since launching commercially in 2023, Revalia has demonstrated significant growth, quadrupling its revenue and recently signing two of the world's top 10 pharmaceutical companies as customers. The company has also achieved key scientific breakthroughs, including developing a first-of-its-kind human lung cancer model in partnership with LifeShare of Oklahoma and establishing a four-day kidney perfusion protocol.
"The ability to generate high-fidelity, human-specific data at scale is one of the most important advancements in biomedicine today," said Brian Wilcove, Managing Partner at America's Frontier Fund. "Revalia's platform has the potential to not only transform clinical trials, but to strengthen national health resilience."
Vision for Human-Centered Drug Development
The company's long-term vision extends beyond individual trials to establishing foundational infrastructure for Human-Centered Drug Development. This approach aims to shift the entire pharmaceutical industry away from animal models toward human-first decision-making systems.
"This is about creating a new foundation for medicine, one built on human data, not animal models," said Ben Yu, Managing Partner at Sierra Ventures. "That shift will change not just how we develop treatments, but how we understand biology itself."
Revalia was founded by a multidisciplinary team including CEO Greg Tietjen, a former Yale professor who led a world-renowned perfusion science laboratory, and Jenna DiRito, who holds a PhD in human organ perfusion from the University of Cambridge. The team also includes Chief Medical Officer Kourosh Saeb-Parsy and other clinical and operational experts.
