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Vida Ventures

Vida Ventures is a life sciences venture capital firm founded by Dr. Arie Belldegrun, the legendary biotech entrepreneur who founded and sold Kite Pharma to Gilead for $11.9 billion. The firm invests in innovative biotechnology companies across oncology, immunology, and other therapeutic areas, bringing deep operational expertise to portfolio companies.

Location
Los Angeles, California, USA & Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Founded
2018
AUM
$1.5B+
Investment Range
$10M - $100M
Focus
biotech-focused
Fund Stages
seed, series-a, series-b, series-c, growth

Investment Thesis

Vida Ventures backs exceptional science and entrepreneurs building transformative biotechnology companies. They focus on companies with novel therapeutic approaches and experienced teams that can advance medicines to patients. The firm brings hands-on operational expertise and extensive industry networks to help portfolio companies succeed.

Team

Partners / Managing Directors

  • Arie Belldegrun, MD, FACS - Co-Founder & Senior Managing Director (Kite Pharma founder, UCLA professor)
  • Arjun Goyal, MD, MPhil - Managing Director
  • Helen Kim, PhD - Managing Director

Other Key Team Members

  • Rebecka Belldegrun, MD - Partner
  • David Chang, MD, PhD - Senior Advisor

Focus Areas

  • Oncology
  • Cell & Gene Therapy
  • Immunology
  • Neuroscience
  • Rare Diseases
  • Novel Therapeutic Modalities

Notable Portfolio Companies

  • Allogene Therapeutics - Allogeneic CAR-T (IPO 2018, co-founded by Arie Belldegrun)
  • PACT Pharma - Personalized neoantigen T-cell therapy
  • Karuna Therapeutics - CNS disorders (acquired by BMS for $14B)
  • Prime Medicine - Prime editing (IPO 2022)
  • Tourmaline Bio - Immunology (IPO 2023)

Notable Exits

  • Kite Pharma - Acquired (2017, acquired by Gilead for $11.9B - founder's prior company)
  • Karuna Therapeutics - Acquired (2024, acquired by BMS for $14B)
  • Allogene Therapeutics - IPO (2018, NASDAQ: ALLO)
  • Prime Medicine - IPO (2022, NASDAQ: PRME)
  • Tourmaline Bio - IPO (2023, NASDAQ: TRML)

Sources