Massachusetts-based VC shop Atlas Venture has drawn together another $450 million fund to be channeled toward innovative biotechs.
The firm’s fourteenth fund is the same amount to the cent as Atlas’ thirteenth fund back in March 2022. The firm has been busy since then, launching 16 new biotechs and recruiting “approximately 100 executive leaders across its portfolio” in the past two years, it explained in a Dec. 5 release.
Atlas’ companies have also kept up the pace in those years, with the firm pointing to Eli Lilly’s acquisition of Versanis Bio last year, GSK paying $1 billion for Aiolos Bio in January and Novartis paying the same amount for Mariana Oncology in May.
Meanwhile, Disc Medicine, Korro Bio, Q32 Bio and Third Harmonic Bio have gone public, Atlas noted.
“Core to Atlas is a disciplined approach to our firm, funds, and portfolio,” the company said in the release. “We believe deeply in the power of a focused venture creation strategy, building biotech companies across the spectrum of disease areas, modalities, and business models.”
“We are grateful to work with a long-standing group of [limited partners] who have embraced our model with tremendous support in Fund XIV,” Atlas added.
The most recent Atlas-backed company to step into the spotlight was Trace Neuroscience. The South San Francisco-based biotech launched in November with $101 million in series A funds—to which Atlas contributed—that will be used to push forward with its genomic medicine for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
Recent months have seen some big hauls across biotech investment more generally, with Bain Capital Life Sciences and Arch Venture Partners both announcing biotech- and healthcare-focused VC funds of around $3 billion. Forbion also unveiled its largest haul to date in October, as the European life-sciences-focused VC firm brought in more than 2 billion euros across two funds.