New investors push corporate-backed biotech venture funds down in rankings

 Two big beasts of the biotech venture world – Orbimed and NEA – have long dominated the private financing space, a look back over 10 years of investor activity finds. A comparison of the first and second halves of the decade also shows how a couple of the big corporate venture funds have slipped down the rankings, though in Novartis’s case this was largely caused by an explosion of activity from new, cash-rich private funds. The Swiss pharma’s venture arm was involved in roughly the same proportion of rounds in the two five-year periods analysed, yet fell several places. Glaxo’s retreat – its venture arm, SR One, sits at 47th place in the later five-year period – culminated in a spin-off last year. Notable arrivals in the top 10 more recently include Cormorant, which largely backs large, pre-flotation crossover rounds, financings that have become common with IPO window wide open. GV is Google’s venture arm, a new cash-rich investor that backed broadly across the life science space, funding developers of therapeutics and diagnostics alike.

Biopharma's biggest venture investors – a 10-year view
Investor ranking 2011-15					Investor ranking 2016-20
Ranking	Investor	Round count	% of rounds as lead investor		Ranking	Investor	Round count	% of rounds as lead investor
1	Orbimed Advisors	104	36%		1	Orbimed Advisors	148	31%
2	New Enterprise Associates	96	42%		2	New Enterprise Associates	95	32%
3	Novartis	79	25%		3	RA Capital	93	32%
4	Glaxosmithkline	59	27%		4	Arch Venture Partners	90	31%
5	Versant Ventures	57	30%		5	Alexandria Venture Investments	89	4%
6	Third Rock Ventures	55	27%		6	Cormorant Asset Management	85	12%
7	Kleiner Perkins	54	17%		7	GV	76	13%
8	Polaris Partners	53	9%		8	Novartis	72	22%
9	F-Prime Capital	53	21%		9	Johnson & Johnson	69	17%
10	SV Life Sciences	52	19%		10	Deerfield	66	36%
Source: Evaluate Pharma.  https://www.evaluate.com/vantage/articles/news/snippets/new-investors-push-corporate-backed-venture-funds-down-rankings