Atlas Venture is an early-stage

venture capital Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to start-up company, startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth poten ...

firm that invests in life sciences

startup companies A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship refers to all new businesses, including self-employment and businesses that never intend t ...

in the

U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

Atlas is headquartered in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston ...

, where the majority of its investments are located. Atlas rolled out its eleventh biotech fund totaling $350 million in June 2017, after closing its tenth fund in April 2015, with $280 million in commitments.

History

Atlas has invested in over 150 life sciences startups since it began investing in the sector in 1990. Atlas invests in a range of therapeutic areas, including

immuno-oncology Cancer immunotherapy (sometimes called immuno-oncology) is the stimulation of the immune system to treat cancer, improving on the immune system's natural ability to fight the disease. It is an application of the fundamental research of cancer ...

autoimmunity In immunology, autoimmunity is the system of immune responses of an organism against its own healthy cells, tissues and other normal body constituents. Any disease resulting from this type of immune response is termed an "autoimmune disease". ...

/inflammation,

neuroscience Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions and disorders. It is a multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, developme ...

, gene/

cell therapy Cell therapy (also called cellular therapy, cell transplantation, or cytotherapy) is a therapy in which viable cells are injected, grafted or implanted into a patient in order to effectuate a medicinal effect, for example, by transplanting T-c ...

and editing, and

anti-infectives An infection is the invasion of tissues by pathogens, their multiplication, and the reaction of host tissues to the infectious agent and the toxins they produce. An infectious disease, also known as a transmissible disease or communicable dis ...

. The current portfolio includes gene/cell editing/therapy companies AVROBIO, Generation Bio,

Intellia Therapeutics Intellia Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on developing novel, potentially curative therapeutics leveraging CRISPR-based technologies. To fully realize the transformative potential of CRISPR-based technologies, Inte ...

, Obsidian Therapeutics, and Unum Therapeutics; oncology companies Bicycle Therapeutics, Kyn Therapeutics, Replimune, Surface Oncology and Unum Therapeutics; autoimmunity companies Nimbus Therapeutics and Padlock Therapeutics; anti-infectives company Spero Therapeutics;

synthetic biology Synthetic biology (SynBio) is a multidisciplinary area of research that seeks to create new biological parts, devices, and systems, or to redesign systems that are already found in nature. It is a branch of science that encompasses a broad ran ...

company Synlogic; RNA companies miRagen Therapeutics and Translate Bio; and CNS companies Cadent Therapeutics, Disarm Therapeutics, Navitor, and Rodin Therapeutics; and novel platform companies Accent Therapeutics, Kymera Therapeutics, Gemini Therapeutics, HotSpot Therapeutics, and Akero. Notable prior exits from Atlas’ life sciences portfolio include Actelion, Adnexus Therapeutics,

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is an American biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of RNA interference (RNAi) therapeutics for genetically defined diseases. The company was founded in 2002 and is he ...

, Annovation Biopharma, ArQule, Arrow Therapeutics, Arteaus Therapeutics, Avila Therapeutics, CoStim Pharmaceuticals, Crucell, deCODE genetics, Delinia,

Exelixis Exelixis, Inc. is a genomics-based drug discovery company located in Alameda, California, and the producer of Cometriq, a treatment approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for medullary thyroid cancer with clinical activity in sev ...

, IFM Therapeutics Inc., Micromet, Momenta Pharmaceuticals,

MorphoSys MorphoSys AG is a biopharmaceutical company founded in 1992. The company is headquartered near Munich, Germany and has a wholly owned subsidiaryMorphoSys US Inc. in Boston MA in the US. The company has various antibody, protein and peptide technol ...

, Nimbus Apollo, Novexel, Padlock Therapeutics, Stromedix, and U3 Pharma. Originally formed in 1980 in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

as a subsidiary of NMB Bank, now part of

ING Group The ING Group ( nl, ING Groep) is a Dutch multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered in Amsterdam. Its primary businesses are retail banking, direct banking, commercial banking, investment banking, wholesale bankin ...

, Atlas historically invested in both life sciences and

information technology Information technology (IT) is the use of computers to create, process, store, retrieve, and exchange all kinds of Data (computing), data . and information. IT forms part of information and communications technology (ICT). An information te ...

startup companies. In October 2014, Atlas announced its shift to a

biotech Biotechnology is the integration of natural sciences and engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms, cells, parts thereof and molecular analogues for products and services. The term ''biotechnology'' was first used b ...

-only venture capital firm, with the technology-focused investment team forming a new firm, Accomplice, to continue investing in information technology startups. Previously as a diversified firm, Atlas had raised over $3.0 billion of investor commitments across nine venture capital funds. The firm raised $705 million for its 2000-vintage fifth fund, $600 million for its 2001-vintage sixth fund, $385 million for its 2006-vintage seventh fund, $283 million for its 2009-vintage eighth fund, and $265 million for its 2013-vintage ninth fund. At its largest, the firm held European offices in London, Paris and Munich, and a West Coast office based in

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region ...

, in addition to the Boston-area headquarters. Today, the firm operates from a single office in

. In 2017, Atlas Venture announced it had raised $350 million in capital to invest in early stage biotech companies in the U.S. and around the world. In January 2019, the company announced a fundraising with total value of $250 million. In June 2020, Atlas Venture closed its 12th fund at $400 million.

References

{{Authority control Dutch companies established in 1980 Private equity firms of the United States Venture capital firms of the United States Companies based in Cambridge, Massachusetts Financial services companies established in 1980