Venture capitalist firm RiverVest Venture Partners has closed its fifth fund with a $275 million raise, bumping up its total over the years to a meaty $1.6 billion.
The new cash haul is earmarked for early-stage biopharma and medical device companies “addressing significant unmet medical need,” according to the firm, though is not giving details on specific targets. The so-called Fund V is RiverVest’s largest fund to date, coming from a “wide range of institutional investors, as well as family offices and individual investors.”
RiverVest typically focuses on founding companies with tech out of academic labs or spinouts. It has invested in 55 companies to date over the past two decades, and most recently saw biotech IPOs for allergy/inflammatory biotech Allakos, liver disease specialist Mirum Pharmaceuticals and Spruce Biosciences, which focuses on rare endocrine diseases.
“With RiverVest Venture Fund V, we will continue our investment strategy grounded in close collaboration with entrepreneurs and academic investigators to develop products for the most pressing challenges patients face today,” said Jay Schmelter, RiverVest’s co-founder and managing director.
“Fund V’s larger size will enable RiverVest to participate more fully in later equity rounds of portfolio companies which have the greatest potential.”