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| Novo Ventures | |
|---|---|
| Name | Novo Ventures |
| Type | Venture capital firm |
| Industry | Biotechnology, Life Sciences, Healthcare |
| Founded | 1997 |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, California |
| Key people | Jan Skoglund; Mark Fishman; Emmanuel Ligner; Robert Langer |
| Products | Venture investments; Seed funding; Series A–D financing |
| Assets | Multi-billion dollar funds |
Novo Ventures is a venture capital firm focused on early to late-stage investments in biotechnology and life science companies. Founded in the late 1990s, the firm has been active across Silicon Valley, Boston, Massachusetts, and international hubs such as Cambridge, United Kingdom and Copenhagen. Novo Ventures has participated in financings involving therapeutic platforms, medical devices, and synthetic biology companies connected to academic centers like Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Copenhagen, and Stanford University.
Novo Ventures traces its origins to investment activity associated with pharmaceutical enterprises in Denmark and global expansion into United States markets during the 1990s. Early relationships were formed with research institutions including Broad Institute, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Karolinska Institute, and companies spun out from Genentech and Amgen. Throughout the 2000s, the firm expanded teams in San Francisco Bay Area, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Seattle, recruiting partners with prior roles at Centerview Partners, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and technology-focused investors from Accel Partners. By the 2010s, the firm had co-invested with corporate venture arms such as Johnson & Johnson Innovation, Novartis Venture Fund, and Pfizer Ventures.
The firm pursues a sector-driven thesis centered on platforms emerging from translational research at institutions like Johns Hopkins University, University of California, San Francisco, and University of Oxford. Deal sourcing leverages networks spanning venture capital syndicates such as Flagship Pioneering, Third Rock Ventures, ARCH Venture Partners, and Atlas Venture. Portfolio construction emphasizes diversified exposure across modalities similar to companies founded by alumni of Genzyme, Biogen, and Roche. Investment stages range from seed to growth rounds, with typical participation in Series A through D alongside co-investors including Sequoia Capital, New Enterprise Associates, and Index Ventures.
The firm's investments include therapeutic developers, platform technology startups, and device makers spun out of academic labs like MIT Media Lab and ETH Zurich. Examples of company types in the portfolio encompass oncology-focused biotechs comparable to Foundation Medicine and Agios Pharmaceuticals, gene therapy innovators in the vein of Spark Therapeutics and Bluebird Bio, and diagnostics firms reminiscent of Guardant Health and Illumina spinouts. Other portfolio parallels include CRISPR-associated enterprises linked to research from UC Berkeley and Broad Institute investigators, as well as synthetic biology companies with ties to Ginkgo Bioworks-style platforms and industrial biotech ventures similar to Amyris.
Funds are structured as limited partnerships with institutional limited partners drawn from sovereign wealth funds like Temasek Holdings and Government Pension Fund of Norway, university endowments such as Harvard Management Company and Yale Investments Office, and corporate strategic investors including GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi. Capital deployment follows conventional management fee and carry arrangements practiced across firms including Benchmark and Kleiner Perkins. The firm has raised multiple vintages with fund sizes comparable to those of Third Rock Ventures and Sofinnova Partners for life-science-specialist funds.
Leadership comprises general partners and operating partners with backgrounds at institutions such as Massachusetts General Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and regulatory experience from U.S. Food and Drug Administration alumni. Board seats held by firm representatives mirror governance roles commonly occupied by investors from Deerfield Management and Perceptive Advisors. Senior advisors include former executives from Eli Lilly and Company, AstraZeneca, and Bristol-Myers Squibb, alongside academic leaders from Stanford Medicine and Imperial College London.
The firm has participated in landmark exits through trade sales and public offerings resembling transactions like Roche’s acquisitions of biotech targets and IPOs akin to Moderna and Alnylam Pharmaceuticals. Exits often involve strategic acquirers such as Novartis and Bayer or public listings on exchanges including NASDAQ and New York Stock Exchange. Portfolio company outcomes have influenced translational pathways at centers such as Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and spurred follow-on financing rounds led by investors like SVB Capital and Tiger Global Management.
As with peers operating in cross-border life-science investing, the firm navigates issues involving United States Securities and Exchange Commission filings, European Medicines Agency-related regulatory timelines, and intellectual property disputes adjudicated in venues like the United States District Court for the District of Delaware. Compliance frameworks reflect best practices advocated by organizations such as National Venture Capital Association and cross-border investment considerations involving entities regulated under laws of Denmark and United Kingdom authorities.
Category:Venture capital firms Category:Biotechnology companies