Investor Profile: Versant Ventures — Thesis, Cheque Size & How to Apply

Versant Ventures is a healthcare venture capital firm founded in 1999 and headquartered in San Francisco, with offices in the United States, Canada and Europe. Its emphasis is on biotechnology companies discovering and developing novel therapeutics, and it is known for building companies from scratch rather than only backing existing ones.

The thesis is company creation. Through its Inception Sciences discovery engine, Versant works with scientists and entrepreneurs to found companies around new biology, then funds them through the clinic. It also pursues build-to-buy partnerships with large pharmaceutical companies, striking deals with firms such as Roche and Eli Lilly to launch startups on an acquisition track.

Sectors are biopharmaceuticals, medical devices and other life science opportunities, across all stages of company development, with the weight on early-stage therapeutics. A standard cheque size is not publicly disclosed; the firm invests through a family of funds, including its flagship venture funds, the later-stage Versant Vantage funds and the Canadian strategic fund Versant Voyageurs. Its seventh flagship fund, Versant Venture Capital VII, was a $600 million global biotech fund closed in December 2018, and earlier funds include a $700 million pair raised in 2018 and a $305 million fifth fund closed in 2014. More recently the firm has described $5.5 billion under management.

Notable portfolio companies include CRISPR Therapeutics; Audentes Therapeutics; Quanticel Pharmaceuticals; BlueRock Therapeutics; and Borealis Biosciences, launched with Novartis and $150 million in funding. Historic exits include Amira Pharmaceuticals, bought by Bristol-Myers Squibb for $475 million; Okairos, acquired by GlaxoSmithKline for $324 million; Acclarent, bought by Johnson & Johnson for $785 million; and Cameron Health, bought by Boston Scientific for up to $300 million plus milestones. More than 100 Versant companies have achieved acquisitions or IPOs since 1999.

Partners include managing directors Carlo Rizzuto, Jerel Davis and Barbara Lubash, alongside a bench of venture partners, entrepreneurs-in-residence and scientists-in-residence. Programmes run through its company-creation engine, which provides lab space, operating talent and discovery infrastructure, and through its Basel, Vancouver and San Francisco teams, which work with academics to build companies from the seed stage.

How to apply for funding

There is no public application portal, and Versant states that its funds are not open to new investors and that it does not solicit approaches from the public. The real route is a warm introduction through a scientist, entrepreneur-in-residence, academic collaborator or co-investor, or through the contact routes on versantventures.com. For Indian founders, the credible entry is a novel therapeutic or platform with strong science, ideally with a co-investor or academic partner already known to the firm, and a clear path to clinical proof of concept.