Novartis Venture Fund is a corporate venture capital firm in Switzerland that focuses on companies that develop novel therapeutics and platforms. Founded 1996 in Basel-Stadt, Switzerland by Argeris Karabelas, it invests in early stage ventures, late stage venture, post-IPO, secondary markets, seed, series A, series B, series C, and post-IPO equity. Its portfolio companies include TScan Therapeutics, GenSight Biologics, FORMA Therapeutics, Arctos Medical, and Enterprise Therapeutics. As of March 2020, Novartis Venture Fund has made 200 investments. Their most recent investment was on January 10, 2020, when TScan Therapeutics raised $35M. Novartis Venture Fund has had 51 exits, the most notable of which include PTC Therapeutics, Bicycle Therapeutics, and Akebia Therapeutics. The company has raised three funds, their latest being Novartis Option Fund (NOF). This fund was announced on January 1, 2009 and raised a total of $200M.
Timeline
Funded Companies
A biopharmaceutical company focused on the research and development of antibiotics to treat serious infections
A company developing Hypoxia Inducible Factor therapies to treat kidney diseases and other conditions
A company developing blood testing device that utilizes deep learning and computer vision.
Altimmune is a therapeutics, treatment, and vaccine development company that looks to find response and prevention solutions
A company developing therapeutics for the treatment of cancer
Adicet Bio is a biotechnology company creating immune cell therapies for treating cancer and other diseases.
A provider of an online telemedicine service in California and focuses on creating a revolutionized patient experience and improving and optimizing clinical care through the advancements in machine learning and AI.
ImaginAb is an immune and oncology imaging company developing a pipeline of novel products that give physicians unprecedented insights into the patient's health--enabling better patient selection and treatment monitoring for immuno-oncology therapies and other drugs.
A pharmaceutical company developing products to address hemophilia
Binx Health Limited is a developer of point-of-care testing platforms.
Omeros is a Seattle-based biotechnology company founded by Konrad Tylka.
A company developing inhaled therapies to treat, prevent the spread of infectious and progressive respiratory diseases
Aeglea BioTherapeutics is a Austin, Texas-based pharmaceutical company developing drugs for the treatment of tumors.
A biopharmaceutical company developing stapled peptide therapeutics for the treatment of cancers and other diseases
A company developing diagnostic products to cure on-farm animal diseases
A company dedicated on the discovery and development of small molecule therapeutics to treat cancer
FoRx Therapeutics is a Basel-based biotechnology company developing a drug discovery platform for cancer drugs.
A biotechnology company developing medicines to treatment viral diseases
Artios Pharma develops cancer treatments that target DNA Damage Response (DDR) Pathways to selectively kill cancer cells
A biotechnology company developing treatments for sickle cell, cancer and other serious disease
A biopahramaceutical company developing protein-based therapeutics to treat inflammatory diseases and cancer
A company developing pepducin technology to produce therapeutics for regenerative medicine, diabetes, inflammation and cancer.
A oncology-based pharmaceutical company developing therapeutics for the protection of cancer patients from radiotherapy and chemotherapy side effects
People
Bart Dzikowski
Head of Legal
David Morris
Venture Partner
Harry Kirsch
Chief Financial Officer
Lauren Silverman
Managing Director
Spyros Artavanis-Tsakonas
Chairman, Option Fund
Further reading
Documentaries, videos and podcasts
Companies
Twentyeight-Seven Therapeutics
Adicet Bio
Anaveon
Anokion
Athelas
Cala Health
Forendo Pharma
Renovacor
TScan Therapeutics