Cure Ventures, a life sciences venture capital firm focusing on company formation around groundbreaking curative technologies, has closed its inaugural fund, Cure Ventures Fund I, L.P., at its targeted hard-cap of $350 million in capital commitments.
The fund is supported by a syndicate of U.S. and internationally-based investors that includes state and city public pension funds, foundations and endowments, fund-of-funds, hospital and health systems, sovereign wealth funds and family offices.
Cure Ventures is focused on early-stage investments in life science and biotech, primarily focused in new therapeutics. Cure’s approach also embraces genetic validation as part of an iterative process to guide a drug through development, increasing the probability of success and mitigating the cost of failure. Embedded Cure operators will work alongside portfolio company founders to drive day-to-day decision making.
“Biopharma venture capital is an enterprise in risk management that demands rigor, diligence and patience,” said Richard Lim, co-founder and managing partner of Cure Ventures.
“At Cure, we aren’t just signing a check. We are committed to working closely with founders to collaborate and operationalize capital, making us a true sweat equity partner. We look forward to sharing more about our investments in the near future.”
Cure Ventures’ model
Cure leverages a seed funding model, which it said allows for important de-risking activities – a critical step in the early drug development process – which sets companies up for success in the clinic and beyond. As part of this process, Cure said it intends to follow through and co-lead subsequent Series A and B rounds of promising companies, seeing such companies through to their exits.
“We founded Cure with a grand ambition: to eradicate life-debilitating and life-ending diseases with curative technologies,” said David Fallace, co-founder and managing partner.
“We know it is people who drive the development of therapeutics that change patients’ lives, not capital. This is why we are committed to continuously interrogating and validating technology to find the best path forward in collaboration with founders.”
Cure Ventures was founded by Lim, Fallace, and Lou Tartaglia. The managing partners have played major roles in the success of several biotechnology companies, including Juno Therapeutics, Agios Therapeutics, Nuvation Bio and others.
“Cure holds the highest respect for the scientists whose life’s work we aim to back. In fact, we consider ourselves their partners, as we understand what they are going through,” said Tartaglia, co-founder and managing partner.
“Our team has personally overcome the kinds of challenges early-stage companies encounter, and we bring decades of drug discovery and operational experience to support our portfolio companies as they de-risk their science, grow and scale.”
The new fund comes hot on the heels of an announcement by SR One, a transatlantic life sciences investment firm, which announced the close of its second fund for biotech companies at more than $600 million.