Vida launched in April 2017 and already has over a $1 billion in funds. It has invested in 14 companies, and three have launched initial public offerings.
Boston-based venture capital firm Vida Ventures raised $600 million for its new, oversubscribed life science fund, Vida Ventures II. Vida launched in April 2017 and already has over a $1 billion in funds. It has invested in 14 companies, and three have launched initial public offerings. Merck acquired another of Vida’s companies, Peloton Therapeutics, for $1 billion upfront in a deal that could hit $2.2 billion, earlier this year.
Vida Ventures is run by Arie Belldegrun, founder and former chair, president and chief executive officer of Kite Pharma. Kite was acquired by Gilead Sciences in 2017 for $12 billion. Belldegrun recently partnered with real estate developer Tishman Speyer to launch a biotech-focused real estate company, Breakthrough Properties. Belldegrun’s family company, Bellco Capital, entered the joint venture and has bought its first property, a one-acre site in Boston’s Seaport District. The site went for $80 million. Breakthrough is also looking at sites in San Francisco.
In 2018, Belldegrun and David Chang, former executive vice president, Research and Development and chief medical officer, of Kite, co-founded Allogene Therapeutics, based in South San Francisco. It was built out of an asset contribution deal with Pfizer, as well as a $300 million Series A round.
Allogene’s focus will be on off-the-shelf CAR-T therapy products. As part of the deal with Pfizer, Allogene received rights to 16 preclinical CAR-T licenses that Pfizer licensed from Cellectis and Servier, and one clinical asset licensed from Servier. In October 2018, Allogene launched its initial public offering (IPO), raising about $288 million.
“The successful fundraise for Vida II and the speed with which we were able to close the fund reflects Vida’s high-quality team and the success of our inaugural fund,” Belldegrun, Vida Venture’s co-founder and senior managing director, stated. “Life sciences has become one of the most dynamic industries and a focal point for venture firms.”
Belldegrun added, “Vida maintains a unique advantage by combining a best-in-class investment team with first-hand business and scientific expertise that directly applies to our portfolio investments. With the added expertise from our newest team members, we are positioned better than ever before to add value by identifying and investing in meaningful science that ultimately has the potential to help patients in need.”
Vida’s first fund closed in November 2017 with $255 million. Since then it has invested in 14 life science companies. In addition to the Allogene IPO, Asklepios BioPharmaceutical, a developer and manufacturer of adeno-associated virus (AAV) gene therapies launched an IPO. Vida also recently co-led the Kronos Bio Series A financing round that raised $105 million.
Other companies in its portfolio include A2 Biotherapeutics, Bait Therapeutics, Homology Medicines, Kadiant, Neogene Therapeutics, Oyster Point Pharma, Pionyr Immunotherapeutics, Praxis Precision Medicines, Precision Medicine Group, and Sutro Biopharma.
In addition to the raise, Vida brought on four new members. Helen S. Kim has come on as managing director. She was most recently a partner at The Column Group, and previously was executive vice president of Business Development at Kite.
Rajul Jain joined Vida as a director, who most recently led the Development organization at Kite.
Heba Nowyhed will be a senior associate. She worked with the business development group at LJI and with the OCR office at Yale.
Eric Trac joins as an associate. Trac was a summer associate at Vivo Capital and has experience in public investing through Mythos Biotech Fund.
