Yosemite

Yosemite is a San Francisco-based venture capital firm with the stated goal of investing in research and companies that develop solutions to make cancer non-lethal within approximately the next fifty years. The firm was announced as a standalone entity spun out from Emerson Collective, an investing organization that focuses on funding sectors such as cancer therapies, digital health, education, and environment and energy.

Yosemite was announced as an independent entity in August 2023. Around the same time, it was announced that the firm had raised more than $200 million for its first specialized fund from investors such as Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, The Rockefeller University, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The goal of the fund is $400 million, and it is being called Yosemite Fund I.

Yosemite is using a dual structure to operate the firm. It will run as a for-profit business while also maintaining a donor-advised fund, which will supply grants to researchers. The purpose of the dual structure is to provide initial funding to scientists and researchers so they can start developing their solutions. Once the solutions are ready to be commercialized, the researchers can also leverage Yosemite for venture funding.