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Jungla funding, valuation and investors
ML platform for clinical genetic variant interpretation—acquired by Invitae in 2019.
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Funding, valuation & investors
Answer-first snapshotLatest funding
Seed
~$2.75M · 2016
Latest known valuation
Not publicly disclosed
Total disclosed equity funding
Not publicly disclosed
Excludes debt, grants, acquisitions, secondaries, and IPO proceeds.
Current status
acquired
acquired · San Francisco, California
Investors in latest funding
Other: Andreessen Horowitz
Latest tracked event: Acquired by Invitae (July 2019). It is shown separately because it is not counted as disclosed equity funding.
Overview
Jungla, founded in 2016 in San Francisco by Alexander Colavin and Carlos Araya, built a cloud Functional Modeling Platform combining machine learning, functional genomics, and distributed systems to interpret genetic variants for clinicians and diagnostic labs. The company focused on resolving variants of unknown significance (VUS)—a bottleneck in hereditary disease testing—not pediatric behavioral apps sometimes confused with the name. Andreessen Horowitz and IndieBio backed Jungla with about $2.75M. After a successful pilot with Invitae, the genetics company acquired Jungla in July 2019 for approximately $50 million in cash and stock (up to ~$65M with milestones) to strengthen variant interpretation and RNA analysis.
Why Jungla is interesting
IndieBio and a16z backed Jungla to turn variants-of-unknown-significance into actionable clinical guidance; Invitae paid ~$50M before the genomics consolidator itself struggled publicly.
Product & use cases
Jungla's Functional Modeling Platform scored and explained genetic variants using computational biophysics and ML—helping labs classify VUS results for cancer and rare-disease panels.
- Clinical variant interpretation for hereditary cancer testing
- Supplemental RNA analysis workflows for diagnostic labs
- Mechanistic evidence packages supporting genetic test reports
Key facts
- Acquired Jul 2019 by Invitae for ~$50M cash/stock (PR Newswire/SEC 8-K)
- Seed backing from a16z and IndieBio (Tracxn)
- Pilot with Invitae closed within four months of outreach (IndieBio)
- Added RNA analysis capabilities to Invitae commercial testing (PR Newswire)
Funding history (newest first)
Acquired by Invitae
2019-07 ~$50M ($35M stock + $15M cash; up to ~$65M with milestones)Investors in our directory
Funds linked from Jungla's profile — open a fund page for stage focus and related deal articles.
Competitive landscape
Edge: Deep ML plus functional genomics stack purpose-built for VUS resolution—not generic LIMS software—with early validation via Invitae pilot before acquisition.
Variant interpretation is a specialized wedge inside clinical genomics. Jungla won a strategic exit by proving value to Invitae rather than scaling as standalone SaaS. Standalone competitors remain, but consolidation favored acquirers with testing volume.
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Invitae (post-acquisition) incumbent
Acquirer integrated Jungla tech into internal interpretation pipelines.
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Fabric Genomics direct
Clinical genomics interpretation software for labs.
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Sophia Genetics adjacent
Broader genomics analytics platform; overlapping lab buyers.
Notable stories
- Founders closed an Invitae pilot within four months—acquisition followed quickly (IndieBio profile).
- Invitae SEC 8-K Jul 16, 2019: 1.37M shares plus ~$14.9M cash at close (SEC).
- Company emerged from IndieBio accelerator focused on computational genomics—not consumer mental-health apps.
Industries
Related funding articles
Venture Capital Tracker pieces that cover Jungla's financing or category context.
FAQs about Jungla
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