Four years after teaming up on a $60 million partnership to fund biotech and pharma companies, Israel’s Arkin Holdings and Phoenix Group are at it again. This time, the duo, along with Migdal, are committing $140 million in their second partnership, dubbed Arkin Bio-Ventures II.
Pini Orbach, Ph.D., Arkin Holdings’ head of pharma, and Alon Lazarus, the company’s biotech investment manager will run the new fund. The plan is to divvy the $140 million in capital commitments between 10 to 12 private companies working on cutting-edge treatments, such as gene therapy, RNA- or DNA-based treatments and targeted therapies for conditions that have limited or no treatments, Arkin said in a statement.
The fund’s predecessor, Arkin Bio-Ventures, has invested in startups tackling a range of disease areas, including metabolic disease, cancer and neurological and psychiatric disorders. Its portfolio includes cancer players Oncorus, Lutris Pharma, BioSight and UroGen. It recently chipped into Werewolf Therapeutics’ $56 million series A round.
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“Inspired by recent scientific breakthroughs, Arkin Bio-Ventures II is well-positioned to meaningfully expand its pharma investment capabilities and global reach, to capture innovative technologies and companies that could have a strong impact on medicine and provide new therapies for patients,” Orbach said in the statement.
Arkin Bio-Ventures II comes soon after Andreessen Horowitz raised its third bio fund and Frazier Healthcare Partners netted $617 million for its tenth fund. At $750 million, A16z’s Bio Fund III dwarfed its predecessors, which totaled $650 million together.