Hepta Bio, founded by veterans of Illumina and Grail, closed a $6.7 million seed round led by Felicis Ventures and Illumina Ventures to commercialize a transformer‑based AI that reads the cell‑free DNA (cfDNA) epigenome for chronic disease detection. The company presented clinical data claiming the platform discriminates MASH patients with significant fibrosis at an AUC of 0.86, a performance the team says reduces false positives compared to current blood tests. Hepta’s approach leverages large transformer models to analyze subtle, distributed methylation shifts in cfDNA rather than mutation‑based signals used in oncology. The startup plans to use proceeds to expand datasets, scale the platform, and pursue regulatory and commercialization milestones. Clinical advisors including Rohit Loomba underscore the potential utility in triaging patients for newly available MASH therapies.