A biotech-focused VC firm in Chicago has reloaded with a large new fund to back more life-science startups.
Arch Venture Partners said Wednesday it raised $2.975 billion for its 12th fund. It follows a $1.9 billion fund Arch raised in 2021, and $1.5 billion it raised across two funds in 2020.
Founded 35 years ago, Arch invests in early-stage biotech companies working in infectious disease, mental health, immunology, oncology and other areas. It tends to invest in companies it co-founds with scientists and entrepreneurs. Its portfolio includes Chicago-based Jaguar Gene Therapy, a gene therapy startup helping patients suffering from severe genetic diseases that raised $139 million last year, and Seattle's Juno Therapeutics, which sold to Celgene for $9 billion in 2018.
Arch's investment sizes range greatly, investing between $50,000 and $150 million in a single deal.
Despite a slowdown in the biotech sector, both in the public markets and venture funding, Arch believes now is the time to double down on biotech investing.
"All the fundamental innovations in biotechnology are accelerating, with huge promise for new preventive, disease-modifying, and even curative treatments," Arch Co-founder and Managing Director Robert Nelsen said in a statement. "Science doesn't care what markets are doing, and science moves forward."
In April 2020, as the Covid-19 pandemic raged, Arch raised a combined $1.46 billion through two funds, with an intentional focus on companies fighting against the virus.
