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The biotech industry is still in its early stages, but some investors are making it work. We’ve compiled a list of the top 10 biotech venture capital investors who have made their mark on the industry by investing in start-ups and leading successful exits, helping to build and grow companies all over the world.
Top 10 Biotech Venture Capital Firms
1. RA Capital
RA Capital Management is an investment advisor based in Boston specializing in the life-sciences and drug development sectors. Their team has been investing since 2002 and is comprised of professionals with training in biology, chemistry, and medicine and also has industry and business development experience at the executive and board levels. They invest in companies with promising technologies and products. Their approach is to achieve a superior understanding of data, experimental/trial design, regulatory process, and commercial potential. When appropriate, they can offer their portfolio companies leads on in-licensing opportunities and strategic partnerships, as well as insight into the demands of the public markets.
Website: www.racap.com
Founded: 2001
Total fund size: $2B
Stage: Seed, Series A, Series B, Growth
Sector: Life Sciences, Biotechnology
Investment Geography: United States
RA Capital Management's most notable exits include Bristol Myers Squibb, FORMA Therapeutics, and Global Blood Therapeutics.
2. Casdin Capital
Casdin Capital is a fundamental research investment firm focused on the life sciences and healthcare industry. It manages a long-short equity fund and makes investments in early-stage to late-stage private investments.
Casdin was launched in 2012 by founder and CIO Eli Casdin and as of October 2020 has approximately $2.2 billion in assets undermanagement.
Website: www.casdincapital.com
Founded: 2012
Total fund size: $30M
Stage: Series A, Series B, Series C, Growth
Sector: Life Sciences, Health Care, Biotechnology
Investment Geography: United States
Casdin Capital's most notable exits include Invitae, Fulcrum Therapeutics, and Absci.
3. OrbiMed
OrbiMed is a healthcare-dedicated investment firm, with approximately $5 billion in assets under management. OrbiMed's investment advisory business was founded in 1989 with a vision to invest across the spectrum of healthcare companies: from private start-ups to large multinational companies. OrbiMed manages the Caduceus Private Investments series of venture capital funds and a family of public equity investment funds.
Website: www.orbimed.com
Founded: 1989
Total fund size: $8.6B
Sector: Biotechnology, Life Sciences
OrbiMed's most notable exits include Adaptive Biotechnologies, Invitae, and Athersys.
4. Logos Capital
Logos Capital is a fundamental biotechnology-focused fund that seeks to combine in-house data analytics with scientific and clinical expertise to identify transformative therapies in healthcare.
Based in San Francisco, Logos combines expertise across medical, scientific, and statistical disciplines to expand the depth of diligence in identifyingcompelling investment ideas and uncorrelated-market returns. They combine scientific diligence with their statistical modeling of clinical trials to achieve the highest levels of conviction in each position.
Website: www.logoscapital.com
Founded: 2019
Logos Capital's most notable exits include SomaLogic, C4 Therapeutics, and Affinivax.
5. Venrock
Venrock continues a tradition of partnering with entrepreneurs to establish successful, enduring companies. With a primary focus on technology and healthcare, portfolio companies have included Apple Computer, Athenahealth, Centocor, Check Point Software, DoubleClick, Endeca, Gilead Sciences, Idec Pharma, Imperva, Illumina, Intel, Nest, SlideShare, and Tudou.
Website: www.venrock.com
Founded: 1969
Total fund size: $4.1B
Stage: Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A, Series B, Growth
Sector: Applications, Digital Health, Internet, Health Care
Ticket Size: $ 4M - $ 20M
Investment Geography: United States
Venrock's most notable exits include Intel, Apple, and Cloudflare.
6. F-Prime Capital
F-Prime's roots are in one of America’s great entrepreneurial success stories. Fidelity Investments was founded in 1946 and grew from a single mutual fund into one of the largest asset management firms in the world, with over $2 trillion in assets under management. For the last forty years, this venture capital group has had the privilege of backing other great entrepreneurs as they built ground-breaking companies in technology and life sciences, including Atari, MCI, ROLM Corp., Alibaba, Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, and Ultragenyx.
Today, F-Prime's funds are larger and more global, but its teams are still small and local. F-Prime stays true to its entrepreneurial roots. In the US and Europe, F-Prime Capital Partners is investing in healthcare (formerly Fidelity Biosciences) and in technology (formerly part of Devonshire Investors). In other geographies, its sister fund is called Eight Roads (formerly Fidelity Growth Partners), with investment teams in London, Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Mumbai.
Together F-Prime brings a world of insight, domain expertise and relationships to support entrepreneurs. Without the pressure of fundraising from outside investors, F-Prime Capital Partners focuses all of its time finding and helping great entrepreneurs build important companies.
Website: www.fprimecapital.com
Founded: 1946
F-Prime Capital's most notable exits include TradeBlock, Precision BioSciences, and Blueprint Medicines.
7. Vivo Capital
The firm is a 25-year-old global investment firm focused on healthcare with approximately $5.8 billion in AUM, which we have invested in over 290 public and private companies worldwide. Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, with offices in Asia. Our team consists of 50 multi-disciplinary professionals, including, physicians, scientists, entrepreneurs, operating executives, and industry experts. The firm operates as a multi-fund investment platform, covering growth equity, private equity including buyout, venture capital, and public equity. Vivo invests broadly in healthcare across all fund strategies, including biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and healthcare services, with a focus on the largest healthcare markets.
Website: www.vivocapital.com
Founded: 1996
Total fund size: $5.4B
Stage: Series A, Series
Sector: Financial Services, Health Care
Vivo Capital's most notable exits include Bristol Myers Squibb, Arcutis Biotherapeutics, and Poseida Therapeutics.
8. Arch Venture Partners
ARCH invests primarily in companies co-founded by scientists and entrepreneurs, concentrating on bringing to market innovations in life sciences. They enjoy special recognition as a leader in the successful commercialization of technologies developed at academic research institutions and national laboratories.
ARCH has raised ten venture funds totaling over $3 billion and has invested in the earliest venture capital rounds for more than 150 companies. ARCH investors include major corporations, pension funds, endowment funds, financial institutions, and private investors.
Website: www.archventure.com
Founded: 1986
Total fund size: $7.7B
Stage: Seed, Series A, Series B, Series C, Growth
Sector: Biotechnology, Health Care, Life Sciences, Energy, Financial Services
Ticket Size: $ 50K - $ 150M
Investment Geography: Agnostic (Global)
ARCH Venture Partners's most notable exits include Twist Bioscience, Karuna Therapeutics, and Bluebird Bio.
9. Surveyor Capital - Citadel
Surveyor Capital is a fundamental equities business. Surveyor’s sector-aligned investment teams operate market neutral strategies and aim to generate alpha through a deep understanding of each company’s strategy, management teams, drivers of performance, and cyclical and secular industry trends over the medium and long term.
Website: www.citadel.com
Founded: 2008
Total fund size: $300M
Surveyor Capital's most notable exits include Point Biopharma, Science 37, and Cerevel Therapeutics.
10. Sofinnova Partners
Sofinnova Partners is a venture capital firm that invests in the life sciences sector, from seed to later-stage.
The firm manages over €2 billion of assets dedicated to life science investing and actively partners with ambitious entrepreneurs as a lead or cornerstone investor to develop transformative innovations that have the potential to positively impact its collective future. It invests in start-ups, early-stage companies, corporate spin-offs, and occasionally turnaround situations with a focus on Life Sciences (Biopharmaceuticals / Biotech, Medical Devices, Industrial Biotechnology). Sofinnova Partners proactively sources deals, takes a lead role, is most often the first institutional investor in Round A financings, and leads its portfolio companies until exit. They sit on the boards of their portfolio companies and play an active role from the formation phase alongside entrepreneurs.
It was headquartered in Paris, Ile-de-France in 1972.
Website: www.sofinnovapartners.com
Founded: 1972
Total fund size: $3.7B
Stage: Seed, Series A, Series B, Series C, Growth
Sector: Life Sciences, Biotechnology, Health Care, Pharmaceutical
Investment Geography: Agnostic (Global)
Sofinnova Partners's most notable exits include Abivax, CinCor Pharma, and Shockwave Medical.
