Atlas Venture, one of biotech’s go-to VC firms, is eyeing a $450 million 14th fund, partner Bruce Booth said in its annual review presentation.
In the review, recorded on Nov. 7 and posted online Monday, Booth said the “key theme” for Fund XIV is “discipline.”
“We’ve chosen to actually come to market with the exact same-sized fund as we raised in Fund XIII, $450 million,” Booth said, referencing the investor’s 2022 raise. “This was the product of a deep strategic and analytical review of, how do you generate outsized returns with our strategy and have a lot of conviction that this is the right fund size for us.”
The new fund has already received commitments: The University of Alabama System’s investment committee approved $8.5 million for the new fund, Crain’s Pensions & Investments reported on Nov. 11.
In an email to Endpoints News on Monday morning, Booth said there are “no filings or updates on timing at this stage” regarding the fund. Atlas had progressively increased the size of its last few funds, raising $280 million for a 10th fund in 2015, $350 million in 2017, $400 million in 2020 and then $450 million in 2022.
Atlas has been quite active this year and has disclosed investments in about a dozen private biotechs, according to the presentation. One of those, obesity biotech Kailera Therapeutics, secured one of the industry’s largest private funding rounds in 2024. About 10 more investments have been made in companies that haven’t yet come out of stealth mode, Booth said during the video.
It’s generated a few exits as well. Pharma companies have bought its portfolio startups Aiolos Bio, IFM Due and Mariana Oncology. Its portfolio of 56 companies has 147 programs in the pipeline, according to the presentation. That includes almost 50 in the clinic.
About 50% of its portfolio is small molecules, 20% cell and gene therapies, 20% biologics and 10% oligonucleotides, according to the presentation. Rare disease comprises the biggest share at 36%, followed by oncology at 31%.
Venture creation is the “vast majority of the deals” that Atlas works on, Booth said, noting the firm doesn’t plan to grow much organizationally and will continue to be “science-first investors.” It added 18 new portfolio companies in 2023 and 2024, and deployed $420 million over that time.
Atlas joins a chorus of other industry investors in putting together new pools of capital this year, including Bain’s life sciences team, ARCH Venture Partners and more than three dozen others, according to an Endpoints tally.
