Novartis Venture Fund

Investing in life science companies that are developing new treatments is the whole business of this fund, which sets out to foster innovation, deliver meaningful benefit to patients and earn strong returns for its backers. It invests in biotechnology and biopharmaceutical companies, and its site describes the fund as stage agnostic, taking part in rounds from seed to later-stage financing.

What the fund looks for

The stated focus is the development of novel therapeutics and platforms. When it assesses a company, it says it looks for an unmet medical need and clinical impact, new proprietary science with a clear understanding of the mechanism, experienced management and board members, and capital efficiency within the program. It reports a strategy of making larger, focused investments in fewer companies rather than spreading small sums widely.

How it takes part

The fund makes equity investments and typically leads or co-leads a round, then takes an active role on the company's board. Its pages list board seats and observer seats across a range of portfolio companies, with names such as Anokion, Faze Medicines, Immunitas Therapeutics, Ribon Therapeutics, Enterprise Therapeutics and Oculis, as well as a seat on the board of a university life sciences fund. Earlier versions of the page also noted portfolio companies that were later acquired by a large pharmaceutical group. Where the money goes is largely early and mid-stage drug development; older pages mention a number of Phase 1 and 2 clinical programs and more than a thousand jobs created across the portfolio.

Scale and geography

The fund says it manages committed capital across more than 40 portfolio companies in North America and Europe. An older version of its text also named Israel, which the current site no longer mentions. The team is split between Basel in Switzerland and Cambridge in Massachusetts, and the fund presents its members as people with backgrounds in life science and in building companies, who have invested in drug development in many disease areas and with many types of treatment.

Relationship to its sponsor

The fund carries the name of the Swiss pharmaceutical group that created it, and uses that connection to describe its aim as improving the future health of patients worldwide. Its own account does not go into the terms of that relationship.

Novartis Venture Fund (NVF) is a venture capital fund that invests in life science companies, with a focus on biotechnology and biopharma. It invests at any stage, from seed to later-stage companies, and takes an active role on the boards of the companies it backs.

What Novartis Venture Fund does

• Seed to late-stage investment: capital across the full range of company maturity, rather than one stage only.
• Board involvement: the fund typically leads or co-leads investments and takes an active board role.
• Focus on novel therapeutics: investment centred on new therapeutics and platforms addressing unmet clinical need.
• Large per-company commitments: investments of up to USD 30 million per company over its life.

Customers and markets

NVF invests in biotechnology and biopharma companies across North America, Europe and Israel.

Key facts

• Capital under management: more than USD 750 million
• Portfolio: more than 40 companies
• Based in: Basel, Switzerland and Cambridge, Massachusetts, US