Menlo Park venture firm Canaan Partners just raised $675 million for its tenth fund – with plans to invest this Fund X mostly in early stage and seed stage startups in both technology and health care.
The majority of Canaan’s healthcare focus for this fund will continue to be therapeutics, Canaan partner Wende Hutton said, with a particular emphasis on the anti-infective space – both antivirals and antibiotics. Citing previous investments like Chimerix and Durata Therapeutics, Hutton said the company sees this as “an area of expertise, and an ongoing area of high interest to us.”
In devices, the firm will look at drug-device combinations, drug delivery combinations and wearables. It’s also diversified into digital health. Canaan historically has done a lot of work with clinical assets that are reformulations or repurposed spinouts from pharma, Hutton said – it allows them to invest in an early stage product that’s already generated safety and efficacy data.
The company’s had a dozen exits in the same number of months, many of which high profile – portfolio company Labrys Biologics, for instance, was acquired by Teva Pharmaceutical for up to $825 million and Citivas Therapeutics is pending acquisition from Acorda Therapeutics for $525 million.
“Our strategy for Canaan X will be similar to the proven diversified sector strategy we’ve used for almost three decades, with two-thirds of Fund X dedicated to information technology and one-third to healthcare,” managing partner Maha Ibrahim said in a statement.
The firm’s current healthcare investments include Arvinas, Chrono Therapeutics, CytomX, Liquidia, Spinifex and Truveris.
