VC's new $900 million fund looks to push tech-biotech innovation - San Francisco Business Times
Seasoned VC Foresite Capital raises $900M pool to fund companies at intersection of biotech and data science Foresite Capital, a venture capital firm at the intersection of biotech and data science, has closed its sixth fund with $900 million in commitments. The fund is aimed at companies at all stages of the convergence of biology, genomics, and artificial intelligence to predict, prevent and treat disease. Some of the funds have already been pledged to some of the biggest newsmakers this year, including Xaira Therapeutics and Alumis Inc. Vik Bajaj, managing director of ForesiteCapital and CEO of its company-building Foreite Labs, said the firm is investing in great companies and entrepreneurs at a judicious pace. The new fund will be distributed to companies created outside ForesITE Labs.
प्रकाशित : 10 महीने पहले द्वारा Ron Leuty में Business Tech
Biotech startups say venture cash isn't trickling down to them. Foresite Capital's new fund wants to change that for companies playing at the intersection of biotech and data science.
Foresite Capital, one of the more-active venture capital firms at the intersection of biotech and data science, said Wednesday it closed its sixth fund with $900 million in capital commitments.
What's more, the Larkspur-based firm has already pledged some of the new money to some of the biggest newsmakers so far this year, such as AI drug development company Xaira Therapeutics and immune-mediated diseases drug company Alumis Inc., which last week laid out plans for a rare biotech initial public offering.
The new fund emerges as many startup and maturing biotech companies say venture funds aren't being deployed as quickly as they need the money, stifling their progress. It's a premise rejected by Vik Bajaj, a managing director of Foresite Capital and co-founder and CEO of its company-building Foresite Labs.
"We are deploying capital judiciously, at the same pace we always have," Bajaj said. "There are lot of great companies and entrepreneurs, and we are investing in them."
Thirteen-year-old Foresite's new Fund VI, which takes the firm's assets under management to more than $3.5 billion, is aimed at all stages of companies working at the convergence of biology, genomics and artificial intelligence to predict, prevent and treat disease, CEO Jim Tananbaum said in a statement. That includes health care services companies, Bajaj said, like San Diego-based DNA sequencing company Element Biosciences, health data aggregators and companies developing personalized care.
Foresite hasn't set any formal ranges for how it will deploy the new fund — how many companies it will fund or how much money it will commit to each company — Bajaj said. Some money will flow to companies Foresite creates; other cash will go to companies created outside Foresite Labs.
"There's innovation in all segments and sectors," he said.
Foresite has spread the love already with Fund VI with AI-focused Xaira and South San Francisco-based Alumis, and the firm's track record of big bets in companies such as Hayward's Eikon Therapeutics Inc. and Pleasanton research tools maker 10x Genomics Inc. demonstrate for limited partners a track record of company building, Bajaj said.
But it has been only in the past few years, he said, that companies can produce and access data at a scale that can make a difference in how they develop drugs or deliver health care services to consumers.
"We're long-term investors," Bajaj said. "We want to accelerate product-development cycles, but that takes time."
विषय: Biotech