Dive Brief:
- SV Health Investors, a Boston-based venture firm, has raised $400 million to invest in early-stage biotech and medical device opportunities as well as more mature digital health companies.
- The fund, which SV Health announced had closed on April 11, is the venture company's sixth flagship fund, following a previous $523 million raise.
- Previously known as SV Life Sciences, SV Health says it has over $2 billion in capital commitments currently under management, including investments in over two dozen biotechs.
Dive Insight:
Venture capital investment into U.S. biotechs ticked up in the first quarter of this year, totaling $887 million across 55 deals, data from PwC MoneyTree shows.
While that investment level represents a 32% decline from the same period a year prior, both deal count and dollars invested increased from a particularly moribund fourth quarter in 2016.
That quarter marked both the lowest total investment and lowest deal count since the third quarter of 2014. Even so, the past three years have seen a much higher level of venture capital investment into the biotech sector than the previous decade.
SV Health's $400 million raise wil be directed at early-stage biotechs, early- and revenue-stage medical device companies and growth equity opportunities in healthcare services and digital health companies, the venture firm said.
SV Health currently has 64 companies in its portfolio of investments, spanning across all three areas.
Other venture firms have also attracted similar levels of interest from investors in recent quarters, closing funds with hundreds of millions of dollars committed. Last month, Pivotal bioVenture Partners secured $300 million for its first fund, outlining plans to target pre-clinical and early-stage biotechs.
And last October, Third Rock Ventures closed its fourth and largest fund, securing $616 million in an oversubscribed fundraising.