Avalon BioVentures Raises First Fund Dedicated to Biotech
Summary
Avalon BioVentures, a La Jolla, CA-based venture capital firm dedicated to early-stage biomedical innovation, closed its first venture fund, ABV1, at $135M. Avalon BioVentures emerged from Avalon Ventures shared life-science/high-tech investing funds as a life-science only fund and will continue to leverage its proven team and company accelerator (the “Accelerator”) to create, fund, and lead companies developing breakthrough therapies to improve health. The new fund creates companies and places them within its Accelerator, an existing, fully operationalized, R&D infrastructure to expedite innovative therapeutic approaches in areas of unmet clinical need. The Managing Partners of Avalon BioVentures are Jay Lichter, Ph.D., Tighe Reardon, CPA, Sanford (Sandy) J. Madigan, Ph.D., and Sergio G. Duron, Ph.D. Mr. Reardon also serves as Chief Financial Officer. More recently, companies founded and led by the Managing Partners of Avalon BioVentures include, among others, Sitari Pharmaceuticals (acquired by GSK), Calporta (acquired by Merck), Synthorx (acquired by Sanofi), Janux Therapeutics (IPO in 2021), and PDI Therapeutics (acquired by Cullinan Oncology).