OS Fund is an American

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 ...

fund that invests in early-stage science and technology companies.

Firm

Bryan Johnson created OS Fund in October 2014, a year after selling Braintree to

eBay eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became ...

for $800 million. He devoted $100 million from the sale of the mobile-payment processor to establishing the fund. Johnson and Jeff Klunzinger serve as the fund's general partners. The fund draws its name from the acronym for

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also i ...

(OS), the software that underlies the basic functions of computers and provides a foundation for other applications. OS Fund focuses on investment in technologies and platforms in genomics,

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 ...

, computationally derived therapeutics,

advanced materials ''Advanced Materials'' is a weekly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering materials science. It includes communications, reviews, and feature articles on topics in chemistry, physics, nanotechnology, ceramics, metallurgy, and biomaterial ...

, and diagnostics. In September 2015, OS Fund published the methodology it uses to evaluate investments in the field of synthetic biology. In order to promote the brand, Johnson said the fund publicly released the "playbook" on its website to encourage others to invest in emerging sciences.

Origins

Johnson has said he launched the fund in response to a pullback in federal support of research and development, and because of a general reluctance by more traditional venture capital firms to make science-related investments. He also has spoken of a desire to use his resources to improve the lives of others.

Investments

OS Fund focuses on early-stage, computationally driven companies that utilize artificial intelligence and machine learning to develop platform technologies in the following sectors: * Genomics *

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 ...

* Computationally Derived Therapeutics *

Advanced Materials ''Advanced Materials'' is a weekly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering materials science. It includes communications, reviews, and feature articles on topics in chemistry, physics, nanotechnology, ceramics, metallurgy, and biomaterial ...

* Diagnostics Notable OS Fund investments include the following: *

Ginkgo Bioworks Ginkgo Bioworks is an American biotech company founded in 2008 by five scientists from MIT, headed by Jason Kelly. The company specializes in using genetic engineering to produce bacteria with industrial applications. Ginkgo Bioworks is an anal ...

, a Boston-based biotechnology company that uses genetic engineering to produce bacteria with industrial applications; recently valued at $4.2 billion.
NuMat
Technologies, pioneers of metal-organic frameworks that utilize high-performance computing to design material-enabled products.
Atomwise
a San Francisco-based developer of an AI-powered drug discovery platform.
Arzeda
a protein and enzymatic design platform used to develop transformative products across industries. * twoXAR, now rebranded a
Aria Pharmaceuticals
an AI-driven drug discovery platform.
Lygos
a biological engineering platform that converts low-cost sugar to high-value chemicals.
Tempo
a software-driven smart factory that merges data, analytics, and automation to rapidly and precisely print complex circuit board assemblies.
Truvian
a benchtop blood testing diagnostic system that provides lab-accurate results in 20 minutes.
Catalog
a Boston company focused on harnessing DNA to store data. The company recently showed it could store 14 gigabytes of data from Wikipedia.org in DNA molecules.
A-Alpha Bio
a drug discovery platform that simultaneously sorts through millions of protein interactions for multiple targets. *

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, a San Francisco-based food technology company focused on sustainable plant-based food products, a 100% plant-based egg alternative made from mung beans. * Matternet, the builder and operator of

drone Drone most commonly refers to: * Drone (bee), a male bee, from an unfertilized egg * Unmanned aerial vehicle * Unmanned surface vehicle, watercraft * Unmanned underwater vehicle or underwater drone Drone, drones or The Drones may also refer to: ...

logistics networks to transport goods on demand. In 2019, they partnered with UPS to transport medical samples across hospital systems as well as UPS and CVS Pharmacy to make at-home prescription deliveries.

References

{{reflist

External links

Official website
Financial services companies established in 2014 American companies established in 2014 Venture capital firms of the United States