A new venture capital firm focused on life sciences has started in the Los Angeles area with more than $300 million on hand.
Westlake Village BioPartners announced its launch Wednesday, with $320 million that it plans to invest in early-stage and some later-stage companies. Life sciences investor Beth Seidenberg and Amgen EVP and head of research and development Sean Harper will be at the helm. Seidenberg is a general partner at Silicon Valley venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins and previously served as chief medical officer and head of global development at Amgen. Kleiner Perkins COO Scott Ryles will also join Westlake as COO.
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The firm has already made a few investments and is “actively” looking at some others as well, Seidenberg said in a phone interview, though she declined to say which companies or how specify how many, adding that Westlake will be in a position to announce them in the next couple of months.
Still, Seidenberg said that what sets the new fund apart from venture capital firms is that she and Harper have collectively developed and commercialized 17 products, having both come from biotechnology research and development organizations. Their scientific capabilities, she said, differentiate them from people at other venture firms who may come from financial backgrounds or rely heavily on consultants. Another way the firm differentiates itself is that it will take multiple approaches to nurture startups, including helping entrepreneurs build companies from the ground up and licensing technologies from academia or other institutions and then matching them appropriate companies.
The firm will be open-minded with respect to therapeutic areas and company geographies, but Seidenberg said areas of unmet medical need are of particular interest, and following the science will be the main focus. “That’s going to be our North Star,” she said.
Westlake is also pitching itself as the first large venture fund of its kind based in the Los Angeles area. In the phone interview, Harper pointed to the importance of local venture capital firms to help develop local life sciences industries. Developing a healthy biotechnology ecosystem on the order of Boston or the San Francisco Bay Area is difficult without a venture capital presence. Although Westlake is not devoting any particular portion of its funding to Los Angeles companies and plans to fund companies regardless of geography, it sees particularly rich opportunities in the area. “We hope to develop a very special relationship with the institutions in this area and be their partner of choice when they think about wanting to engage in this kind of company formation activity,” Harper said. “We feel that the talent base and receptivity of the communities and governments in this part of California is very high.”
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