Category Archives: Fundraising

Atlas XIV And Reflections On The VC Math Problem
December 5, 2024

Today we announced the closing of Atlas Venture Fund XIV, a $450M investment vehicle focused exclusively on early stage biotech investing. With the closing of Fund XIV, we’re privileged to be able to continue backing innovative new biotech companies for

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To B or Not to (Series) B
June 18, 2024

By Robert Clarke, CEO of Kinaset Therapeutics, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC Strategic considerations of when and how to consider raising additional capital to support clinical development in an improving but still volatile market. As

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The Biotech Startup Contraction Continues… And That’s A Good Thing
April 26, 2024

Venture creation in biotech is witnessing a sustained contraction. After the pandemic bubble’s over-indulgence, the venture ecosystem appears to have reset its pace of launching new startups. According to the latest Pitchbook data, venture creation in biotech hit its slowest

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Lessons From A Private Funding Round: Science, Relationships, And Experience
April 2, 2024

By Mike Cloonan, CEO of Sionna Therapeutics, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC An insightful piece on this blog following the JPM healthcare conference noted the “refreshing burst of enthusiasm” in the biotech sector. It’s true

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Biotech Venture Ecosystem: Quick Health Check
January 12, 2024

Biotech feels like it’s got some wind in its sails here at the start of 2024, with positive sentiments from the JPM conference. Indeed, the public equity markets feeling somewhat buoyant for the first time in ages. With the close

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Surprising Resilience Of Private VC-Backed Biotech Markets
July 6, 2022

It’s biotech armageddon out there: with massive value destruction across public stocks, it’s clearly the worst market backdrop in over 20 years. Nothing like this pullback has happened in recent memory. This is way worse than the short “sky is

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Biotech: The Featherweight Champion Of The Markets
November 20, 2020

Biotech punches way above its weight-class, and that’s never been more apparent than in this pandemic and the race for a COVID vaccine. For those of us in biopharma, it feels like it’s a large and dynamic sector populated by

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Booming VC-Backed Biopharma: Strong Market Despite Pandemic
April 8, 2020

Venture capital is a long investment cycle business, and never before has that been so clear as now in the face of the ongoing COVID pandemic. Even with the unprecedented public equity market volatility, venture investing into private biopharma companies

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Wither New Biotech Startups?
January 27, 2020

Biotech is in the midst of an incredible era of innovation: new modalities and novel medicines delivering real value to patients, leading to a decade-long bull cycle. It’s been exhilarating to watch and participate in this market, and venture capital

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Biotech Venture Deal Terms Are More “Startup-Friendly” Than Ever
September 10, 2018

Biotech is booming, with eye-popping new financings seemingly announced daily. The sector is having an epic year for startup fundraising, breaking records for what will end up as the most active private biotech financing year ever. Although overall sentiment in

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Another Trophy Quarter For VC-Backed Biotech Funding
April 30, 2018

The flood of capital continues to pour into the private biotech ecosystem, marking the current climate as the most prolific period of investing into the sector of all time. The first three months of 2018 secured yet another “biggest quarter

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VC-Backed Biotech Ecosystem: A Market In Healthy Equilibrium
March 10, 2017

Despite the volatility of biotech stocks in the public markets, the VC-backed private biotech ecosystem has been in remarkable equilibrium for much of the last decade. e·qui·lib·ri·um. noun.  a state in which opposing forces or influences are balanced. As I’ve noted

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Raising Capital As A Private Biotech: Insights From Unum Therapeutics’ Series B Round
April 6, 2016

This blog was written by Christiana Stamoulis, CFO and Head of Corporate Development at Unum, as part of the “From The Trenches” feature of LifeSciVC. In June 2015 Unum Therapeutics closed a $65M a Series B round, bringing in capital

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Outliers: A Perspective On Startup Biotech Outside The Mega-clusters
February 3, 2016

This blog was written by Bill Marshall, CEO of MiRagen Therapeutics in Boulder, CO, as part of the “From The Trenches” feature of LifeSciVC. Dictionary.com defines “outlier” as: (1) something that lies outside the main body or group that it

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The Other Side Of The Fence
August 5, 2015

This blog was written by Ron Renaud, CEO of RaNA Therapeutics, as part of the “From the Trenches” feature of LifeSciVC. In a previous post I was extolling the virtues of leading a private company. Specifically, the freedom of being able

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