Versant Ventures
Versant Ventures is a leading global healthcare venture capital firm with a unique company creation model. Through their internal discovery engines and Inception Discovery programs, Versant creates new biotechnology companies from the ground up while also making external investments in innovative life sciences companies.
Location
San Francisco, California, USA & Basel, Switzerland
Founded
1999
AUM
$5B+
Investment Range
$10M - $100M
Portfolio Companies
1
Focus
biotech-focused
Fund Stages
seed, series-a, series-b, series-c, growth
Investment Thesis
Versant combines company creation with traditional venture investing. Their Inception Discovery programs identify novel drug targets and create companies around them, while also investing externally in promising biotechnology companies. They focus on differentiated science, novel therapeutic modalities, and experienced management teams.
Team
Partners / Managing Directors
- Brad Bolzon, PhD - Managing Director
- Clare Ozawa - Managing Director
- Tom Woiwode, PhD - Managing Director
- Alex Mayweg, PhD - Managing Director
- Jerel Davis, PhD - Managing Director
Other Key Team Members
- Carlo Rizzuto, PhD - Managing Director
- William Link, PhD - Founding Managing Director
Focus Areas
- Oncology
- Immunology
- Neuroscience
- Rare Diseases
- Gene & Cell Therapy
- Drug Discovery Platforms
- Medical Devices
Notable Portfolio Companies
- Chinook Therapeutics - Kidney diseases (acquired by Novartis for $3.2B)
- Cullinan Oncology - Cancer therapies (IPO 2021)
- Rallybio - Rare diseases (IPO 2021)
- Generation Bio - Non-viral gene therapy
- Annexon Biosciences - Complement pathway (IPO 2020)
Notable Exits
- Chinook Therapeutics - Acquired (2023, acquired by Novartis for $3.2B)
- Juno Therapeutics - Acquired (2018, acquired by Celgene for $9B)
- Aimmune Therapeutics - Acquired (2020, acquired by Nestlé for $2.6B)
- Cullinan Oncology - IPO (2021, NASDAQ: CGEM)
- Rallybio - IPO (2021, NASDAQ: RLYB)
- Intellia Therapeutics - IPO (2016, NASDAQ: NTLA)
Unique Model
- Inception Discovery - Internal company creation platform
- Raised $950 million across three vehicles (April 2021)
- Discovery engines in Basel, Switzerland and San Francisco
Sources
- Versant Ventures website: https://www.versantventures.com
- https://www.versantventures.com/team
- Crunchbase: https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/versant-ventures
- BioCentury, Fierce Biotech coverage
Portfolio Companies
| Name | Location | Founded | Categories |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neli Therapeutics | - | - | therapeuticsbiotech+1 |