Section 32 is a California-based venture fund founded by

Google Ventures GV is a venture capital investment arm of Alphabet Inc., founded by Bill Maris, that provides seed, venture, and growth stage funding to technology companies. Founded as Google Ventures in 2009, the firm has operated independently of Google, Alph ...

founder,

Bill Maris Bill Maris (born William J. Maris) is an American entrepreneur and venture capitalist focused on technology and the life sciences. Bill Maris's investments have to date resulted in over 150 exits and more than 50 companies that have grown to over ...

. Section 32 funds technology,

biotechnology 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 ...

, healthcare and life sciences companies and has approximately $1 billion under management.

History

Section 32 was founded by the by

founder,

. Bill Maris' background is in technology and neuroscience, and he retired from Google Ventures (later GV) after he declared "mission accomplished." He founded Section 32 to invest in technology, healthcare and the life science companies. The fund aimed to raise $100 million however, citing a strong interest, the first fund raise was $160 million, and the firm now has approximately $1 billion under management. In December 2017, Michael Pellini, the former CEO and standing Chairman of

Foundation Medicine Foundation Medicine, Inc. is an American company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which develops, manufactures, and sells genomic profiling assays based on next-generation sequencing technology for solid tumors, hematologic malignancies, and ...

joined Section 32 as a Managing Partner along with another ex-Google Ventures senior leader, Jenn Kercher, who joined as Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel. Google Ventures former CFO, Jonathan Faerber, and Bill Maris' long term Executive Assistant and Chief of Staff from Google Ventures, Lindsey Archarya, both joined Section 32 in 2018. In early 2019, Section 32 announced that it had raised nearly $200M for a second fund. In November 2019, Steve Kafka, joined Section 32 as a Managing Partner. He served as both founding CEO and Executive Chairman of Thrive Earlier Detection, and President and Chief Operating Officer at Foundation Medicine. In 2020, Section 32 announced it was raising $350M for its third fund. Sarah Larson, formerly at Third Rock Ventures, and Alice Cheung, formerly at

Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...

and X, joined in March 2020 as Chief People Officer and Head of Talent. In March 2021, Andy Harrison joined Section 32 as a Managing Partner. He previously held executive leadership roles at

Alphabet An alphabet is a standardized set of basic written graphemes (called letters) that represent the phonemes of certain spoken languages. Not all writing systems represent language in this way; in a syllabary, each character represents a syllab ...

, including

Verily Life Sciences Verily Life Sciences, also known as Verily (formerly Google Life Sciences), is Alphabet Inc.'s research organization devoted to the study of life sciences. The organization was formerly a division of Google X, until August 10, 2015, when Sergey ...

(previously Google Life Sciences) and X (previously GoogleX). Sue Hager, formerly an executive at

and EQRx, joined as Chief Investor Relations and Communications Officer, also in March 2021. Section 32 has notably invested in

Kobalt Music Group Kobalt Music Group is an independent rights management and music publishing company. Founded in 2000 by CEO Willard Ahdritz, Kobalt acts primarily as an administrative publishing company, not owning any copyrights. Also offering label services ...

, Thrive, Vir, Relay, Coinbase, Crowdstrike, Metromile, and Singular Genomics.

References

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External links

Official website
Venture capital firms of the United States