Westlake launches $450-million fund to catalyse LA biotech hub
17 Jul 2023
Executive Change
Westlake Village BioPartners on Monday announced the launch of a $450-million fund aimed at supporting early-stage, next-generation biotechs located in the Los Angeles region and beyond. The new fund brings the total amount Westlake has raised to $1.3 billion since 2018, when it kicked off with an inaugural fund of $320 million, and then topped that up with two more funds in 2020 totalling $500 million.
Managing director Beth Seidenberg said the latest capital raise "will enable us to continue to…build great companies from the ground up that make a difference for patients and generate outsized returns for investors regardless of market conditions."
Seidenberg will lead the new fund along with Mira Chaurushiya and David Allison, both alumni at 5AM Ventures. Between the two of them whilst at 5AM, they have been involved in several investments such as CinCor Pharma, which was acquired by AstraZeneca earlier this year for up to $1.8 billion, and others including Crinetics Pharmaceuticals, Enliven Therapeutics, Escient Pharmaceuticals, Novome Biotechnologies and Radionetics. Chaurushiya was appointed a senior partner at Westlake in early 2022 and has now been promoted to managing director, while Allison was recently appointed managing director.
Westlake has so far established eight companies in the Los Angeles region. "Los Angeles has a culture of innovation that is underappreciated in the biotech world," according to Chaurushiya. "We have outstanding entrepreneurial and industry-experienced talent, world-class academic institutions, and sufficient venture capital with expertise in building biotech companies… This is a recipe for success," she added.
Despite tough market conditions for biotechs, specialist venture capital (VC) firms have raised more than $5.7 billion in the first half of this year to put toward new and burgeoning life sciences companies. For more on that, see ViewPoints: A look back on what excited VCs in 1H23.
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