Four years after Venrock VI closed, the venerable venture capital firm has closed a new fund, recovering some of the size of its funds of old.
Venrock VII brings in $450 million in new capital, TechCrunch reports. The 45-year-old VC firm downsized with fund VI, raising $350 million to follow its $700 million Fund V.
Bryan Roberts told TC the firm will continue investing at the early stage in both healthcare and software--but that the lines between the two have begun to blur. Most of Venrock's healthcare deals are underpinned by some kind of tech play, he said. Venrock will make eight to 10 new investments a year in the new fund.
One example of that direction is Boston-based Kyruus, a big-data physician database. Venrock was an early backer, and returned last year in Kyruus' $11 million Series B.
In June of last year, Venrock brought on a new Boston-area partner, hiring Aaron White away from another portfolio company, Boundless Learning. (Venrock's partners are called VPs. Might be a nod to the firm's history as a family office.)
Boundless may soon exit the Venrock portfolio in an acquisition, we reported less than two weeks ago in the BostInno Beat. If it does, it will join Where Inc., the Boston location-based marketing company acquired by PayPal in 2011 for $135 million. That acquisition has spread out throughout Boston in ripples of talent and investment, as we reported earlier this month. (Check out The Where Inc. Mafia Part I.)
Venrock has its straight biotech investments in the Boston area, too, including Ironwood Pharma, which won approval in 2012 for its drug, Linaclotide, to treat irritable bowel syndrome. Ironwood went public in 2010.
Founded in 1969 as a VC office for the Rockefeller family, Venrock has offices in three cities--New York, Palo Alto, Calif., and Cambridge, Mass. Investments in New York and the San Francisco Bay Area include Nest, Dataminr, AppNexus and Doctor on Demand. The firm also invested in Los Angeles-based Dollar Shave Club.
