DCVC Bio confirmed it has put together a $400 million third fund, four years after raising $350 million in its sophomore effort.
DCVC Bio formed in 2018 and is part of the larger DCVC family. The broader firm was founded in 2010 and invests in technological applications used in everything from biology to climate, defense, space and robots, according to its website. Plans for the new $400 million biotech fund were disclosed in an SEC filing last September.
The raise comes amid a wave of biopharma and life sciences VC fundraises, including ARCH’s $3 billion haul last week and other early-stage investors like Curie.Bio and venBio.
DCVC Bio backs a variety of modalities, including CNS gene therapy startup Latus Bio, cell therapy maker Orca Bio, radiopharmaceuticals developer Radionetics, and genetic medicines companies GenEdit and Chroma Medicine, among others.
It’s also invested in AI-driven drug developer X-37 and technology companies in agriculture and farming, including Verdant Robotics, Sabanto and BioPhero.
“We are deep tech life sciences, so we like swing-for-the-fences biology,” managing partner Kiersten Stead said in an interview with Endpoints News earlier this year. “Some of our companies have engineering components. That seems to be more common now but when we were first doing it, people were more cynical about those applications.”
Stead and fellow DCVC Bio managing partner John Hamer have been investing together for more than a decade. Both were previously investors at Monsanto Growth Ventures.
STAT News reported the new fund earlier Monday.