Most Active Biotech Investors in San Diego
Key facts on Investors at Dexcom Ventures, Illumina Ventures, Section 32 and more.
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San Diego ranks third globally in total biotech investments, behind San Francisco and Boston respectively. Since 2020, I’ve had a front row seat interviewing notable life science and health-tech startups and executives, primarily in the Sorrento Valley area.
This includes covering billion-dollar acquisitions, hundred-million initial public offerings (IPOs), as well as the special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs), which all together — have returned “tens of billions” collectively to a number of high-profile venture investment firms as well as off-the-radar angel investors.
To spot the next wave of billion-dollar opportunity, a number of San Francisco and Boston venture firms are flying in, or setting up shop to invest in hot deals.
Last week, San Francisco-based Red Tree, a Bay Area venture capital firm, announced it was expanding its presence and establishing a local office here.
“Just this year Prometheus was acquired by Merck for $10.8 billion. DTx Pharma by Novartis for $1 billion dollars,” Jeremy Caldwell, partner at Red Tree Venture Capital told a reporter in an interview with Biopharma Dive published on November 16th. “That really speaks to the innovation that’s happening here and the cluster of academia, pharma, and entrepreneurial science happening in the area.”
On the flip side, there are more than a dozen local active VC firms in San Diego who are regularly investing in biotech, health-tech and adjacent industries: ARCH Venture Partners, Section 32, Insight Investment Partners, Dexcom Ventures, Alexandria Venture Investments, Illumina Ventures, Insight Partners, Avalon BioVentures.
We have combed through dozens of private firms to provide you with a ranked list. In this hand-picked group, learn which firms have been most successful in betting on the biotech companies they invest in, company’s strategy behind their performance, and insights on who delivered the best returns.