2 young founders who sold a company for $81 million and are now trying to help cure cancer just raised $175 million from a pharmaceutical giant

Nat Turner and Zach Weinberg are young, successful and ambitious. The pair formerly started an ad tech company that Google acquired for $81 million, Invite Media, and for the past two years they've been tackling a much bigger problem: cancer.

Turner and Weinberg launched Flatiron Health after seeing family and friends battle the brutal disease. Flatiron Health is taking a data-driven approach to cancer. It analyzes the results of cancer treatments and turns the information and findings it gathers into software solutions the medical community can subscribe to. Now they've raised $175 million from pharmaceutical giant Roche, which will also be purchasing some of Flatiron Health's software, The New York Times' Katie Benner reports.

Turner tells The New York Times that his company plans to IPO within a few years, and the giant fundraise and partnership will help generate enough recurring revenue to justify a public offering. Flatiron Health declined to disclose its valuation, but in late 2014 it was worth more than $500 million. The company has raised more than $300 million to date; Google Ventures previously led a $130 round of financing in the company.

Turner did not immediately respond to a request for comment.