On the heels of last week’s announcements from Foresite Capital and J.P. Morgan Private Capital, Decheng is planning to raise $700 million for its fifth life sciences fund.
Life sciences investment firm Decheng Capital on Monday unveiled plans for its fifth fund with a target raise of $700 million, according to an SEC filing.
Decheng has not yet disclosed the investment priorities for its fifth fund, including therapeutic areas, platform technologies or target companies, nor has it provided a specific timeline for when it expects to close its fundraising.
The investment firm—which is based in Shanghai, New York and Silicon Valley—is focused on supporting “early-stage life science companies” working on “revolutionary technologies,” according to its website. Decheng also backs “growth stage healthcare companies with strong market presence.” Since its founding in 2012, the firm has raised over $2 billion in capital and has helped fund some of the promising start-ups across the industry.
Decheng’s portfolio includes Acelyrin, Arcus Biosciences and CG Oncology, which all have successfully gone public in recent years. The firm has also backed ARMO Biosciences which was acquired by Eli Lilly, Checkmate Pharmaceuticals which was bought by Regeneron, and GeneWeave which was purchased by Roche.
Many of Decheng’s other portfolio companies are also in the process of being absorbed by or partnering with large pharma players. In April 2024, Mammoth Biosciences inked a research, development and commercialization contract with Regeneron, leveraging its in vivo CRISPR-based gene editing platform.
That same month, Bristol Myers Squibb signed a $380 million deal with Cellares to use the biotech’s Cell Shuttle technology, an end-to-end and fully automated platform for manufacturing CAR-T cell therapies.
A few weeks earlier, Decheng-backed Alpine Immune Sciences agreed to be bought by Vertex Pharmaceuticals for $65 per share or approximately $4.9 billion in cash. The deal, which has been approved by both companies’ boards of directors, is expected to close later this year. Another Decheng company, Anheart Therapeutics, was bought by Nuvation Bio in March 2024 in an all-stock transaction.
Decheng’s announcement on Monday comes after two other life science investment firms closed major funds last week.
With $900 million in capital commitments, Foresite Capital on Wednesday announced its goal of supporting innovative projects at the intersection of biotechnology and technology. Foresite is looking to back growth-oriented biotechs working in precision therapeutics, life science infrastructure and healthcare delivery.
Also last week, J.P. Morgan Private Capital unveiled its $500 million fund. Secured from various backers, the fund will largely be agnostic in terms of stage, modality, geography and therapeutic area, though J.P. Morgan will focus primarily on private biotechs specializing in cardiometabolic diseases, immunology, oncology and genetic medicines.
Tristan Manalac is an independent science writer based in Metro Manila, Philippines. Reach out to him on LinkedIn or email him at tristan@tristanmanalac.com or tristan.manalac@biospace.com.
