New VC Curie.bio makes its debut with $500m+ war chest

A new venture capital fund for biotech – dubbed Curie.bio – has launched with what it claims is a whole new model for financing the sector.

The key ingredient will be an approach that allows the founders of start-up companies to get access to seed investment dollars alongside the experience of Curie.bio “co-pilots”, who will help them with a scientific plan, budgeting, timelines, selection of contract partners and recruitment, even before an investment cheque is written.

A new company can be expected to be paired with individuals who have decades of experience in drug discovery and development and who it “would be impossible for most seed stage companies to be able to recruit or afford,” according to the new fund, which calls its approach “Free the founders”.

Curie.bio has been founded by a trio of investors with strong biotech industry credentials, led by chief executive Zach Weinberg, the founder of cancer health tech company Flatiron Health, bought out by Roche in 2018.

Alexis Borisy, a former partner at Third Rock Ventures is serving as chair and will bring experience as a co-founder of a string of biotechs, including EQRX, Relay Therapeutics, and Blueprint Medicines, as well as Foundation Medicine - also bought by Roche five years ago.

Rounding out the C-suite as chief scientific officer is Christoph Lengauer, another ex-Third Rock partner and co-founder of MOMA Therapeutics, Celsius Therapeutics, and Thrive Earlier Detection, and formerly CSO at Blueprint.

Curie.bio says it has raised more than $500 million for its first fund, backed by the likes of ARCH Ventures, Casdin Capital, and GV, and will focus on pre-Series A start-ups that are in a position to reach a “meaningful value inflection”, with a spend of $5 to $7 million – its typical investment amount – within 12 to 18 months.

It is focused on companies with specific lead programmes, rather than platform technologies, drawing on a team that has brought over 60 drugs into clinical testing with 12 regulatory approvals.

“By support, we don’t mean just a couple of hours a month,” says the new fund’s website. “We are in the trenches with you on a day-to-day basis, operating as fully integrated members of your team.”

The fund’s portfolio already features at least four companies, including Forward Therapeutics, Astoria Biologica, Decrypt Biomedicine, and Differentiated Therapeutics.