A VC firm started by Google Ventures founder Bill Maris and former Foundation Medicine Chairman Dr. Michael Pellini is raising for its third fund. Section 32, which invests in technology and life sciences companies, plans to raise up to $350 million, according to SEC documents filed on April 14. For its first two funds, the firm raised $160 million and $199 million.
A nod to the Star Trek universe — Section 31 — the firm’s investment thesis is decidedly futuristic. According to Section 32’s website, the company focuses on biotechnology, advanced diagnostics, precision medicine, cybersecurity and machine learning, to name a few areas.
When Investment Rhymes with Canada
Canada has a proud history of achievement in the areas of science and technology, and the field of biomanufacturing and life sciences is no exception.
Maris founded the San Diego-based venture capital firm in 2017, after spending eight years building Google’s corporate venture arm, GV. Months later, Pellini joined him as a partner with the firm, after serving as CEO and chairman of molecular diagnostics company Foundation Medicine. The firm added a third managing partner last fall, with Steve Kafka, a former partner with Third Rock Ventures and former COO of Foundation Medicine.
In a previous interview with MedCity News, Pellini said the firm had invested just over half of its first fund in technology companies, and would focus more on healthcare and life sciences in its second fund.
The three-year-old firm has already seen five exits, including surgical robotics company Auris, which was acquired by Johnson & Johnson last year for $3.4 billion, and immuno-neurology startup Alector, which went public for $176 million last year. Biopharma startup Fulcrum Therapetuics, immunology startup Vir Biotechnology and cybersecurity startup Crowdstrike also went public last year.
Some of Section 32’s other notable investments include Celularity, a company developing cancer immunotherapy treatments, Aspen Neuroscience, a startup developing a stem cell-based treatment for Parkinson’s disease, and Vineti, a startup building logistics software for cell and gene therapies.
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