# Valar Labs

> Valar Labs is a Palo Alto precision-oncology company building AI tests that read the pathology slides already made during routine cancer care. Its Vesta platform applies proprietary foundation models to standard H&E-stained tissue images to predict how individual patients will respond to therapy - starting with bladder cancer, where it forecasts whether a patient is likely to benefit from BCG treatment and stratifies the risk of recurrence and progression. Founded in 2021 by Stanford AI researchers, the company has raised $26M total and earned the FDA's first Breakthrough Device Designation for an AI digital-pathology prognostic test in bladder cancer.

- **Founded:** 2021
- **Headquarters:** Palo Alto, California, United States
- **Founders:** Anirudh Joshi (Co-Founder & CEO), Viswesh Krishna (Co-Founder & CTO), Damir Vrabac (Co-Founder & COO), Pranav Rajpurkar (Co-Founder / Scientific Advisor (Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School))
- **Team size:** ~27 employees
- **Products:** Vesta Bladder (Risk Stratify Dx), Vesta Prostate, Vitara, Valar foundation models
- **Notable:** Received the FDA's first Breakthrough Device Designation for an AI digital-pathology prognostic test in bladder cancer (Vesta Bladder Risk Stratify Dx), announced May 2026., Raised $22M Series A co-led by DCVC and a16z Bio + Health in May 2024 ($26M total funding)., Validated its bladder-cancer model across a dozen medical centers and 1,000+ patients with peer-reviewed results.

## Products & services

- **Vesta Bladder (Risk Stratify Dx)** — An AI digital-pathology test that applies proprietary foundation models to standard H&E-stained bladder-tumor slides to prognosticate recurrence and progression risk and predict which non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer patients are unlikely to benefit from BCG therapy. First AI digital-pathology prognostic test in bladder cancer to receive FDA Breakthrough Device Designation.
- **Vesta Prostate** — An AI histology test extending the Vesta platform to prostate cancer for risk stratification and treatment-response prediction.
- **Vitara** — An additional oncology diagnostic offering within the Valar Labs portfolio.
- **Valar foundation models** — Proprietary computer-vision and clinical AI foundation models trained on thousands of patient tissue specimens paired with clinical outcomes, designed to surface predictive image features not appreciable by human review alone.

## Achievements

- Received the FDA's first Breakthrough Device Designation for an AI digital-pathology prognostic test in bladder cancer (Vesta Bladder Risk Stratify Dx), announced May 2026.
- Raised $22M Series A co-led by DCVC and a16z Bio + Health in May 2024 ($26M total funding).
- Validated its bladder-cancer model across a dozen medical centers and 1,000+ patients with peer-reviewed results.
- Launched the first CLIA-validated Vesta product for bladder cancer.
- PearX S21 alumnus; backed by a16z across both Seed and Series A rounds.

## Latest updates

- **2026-05** — FDA grants Breakthrough Device Designation to Vesta Bladder Risk Stratify Dx - a US first for AI digital pathology in bladder cancer.
- **2025-12** — Announces strategic partnership with Acupath Laboratories to deliver Vesta tests for non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer.
- **2024-05** — Debuts AI-powered cancer-care prediction tool and closes $22M Series A co-led by DCVC and a16z.

## Links

- Website: https://valarlabs.com
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/valarlabs
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/valarlabs

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/valar-labs
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-06-27