$750 million! The third special biological fund launched after the transformation of famous venture capital

When Andreessen Horowitz launched its first biomedical fund four years ago, the idea of using software to influence drug development sounded like science fiction And everything is changing Now, this idea is not only accepted, but also widely accepted It has also led to the rapid growth of the number of start-ups and the extensive investment of established companies Technology, biotechnology, and healthcare technologies are converging, and biotechnology is now a very popular thing for pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, and investors Recently, the company officially launched a $750 million third biomedical special fund, which has exceeded the sum of its first and second funds From designing better drugs to improving people's access to health care, the fund targets start-ups in the field Prior to the launch of the first fund, the company had said it did not intend to enter the biomedical sector In response, Jorge Conde, one of the main promoters of the company's biology related investment, said that in the eyes of outsiders, the company's 180 degree strategic focus shift seemed to fluctuate But in fact, this is the gradual integration of health, biology and technology Previously, these three industries have developed steadily in their respective fields, but now a new type of company combining their advantages has emerged When biotechnology, technology and healthcare intersect, different things will gradually emerge, which is Andreessen Horowitz's investment goal Insitro, founded in 2018, is one of the interdisciplinary start-ups in Andreessen Horowitz's portfolio, which is awarded by Daphne, the famous MacArthur Talent Award winner Created by Dr Koller, it aims to combine top-notch machine learning algorithms with high-quality, large-scale training data, and truly promote machine learning algorithms based on data quantity and quality It is reported that the company's round a financing amount is more than $100 million In April last year, the company also entered into a strategic partnership with Gilead sciences to develop innovative therapies for nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) Four years ago, the launch of the first $200 million biological fund also supported several start-ups like insitro that influence biological development through software Among them, Ciitizen, a digital medical record platform, and patientping, a start-up company designed to help medical service providers coordinate patients, have achieved outstanding results In 2017, it launched its second $450 million biological fund and expanded its strategic deployment from medical software to drug development and disease surveillance The second fund supports the development of bioge labs, a start-up company that uses machine learning and biomarkers to develop drugs, and freenome, a cancer testing company At present, bioage is advancing its first drug to preclinical research stage, and freenome has obtained gratifying early results from its first prospective clinical research Freenome's multiomics blood test has high sensitivity and specificity for the detection of early colorectal cancer (CRC) Early detection is very important for improving the survival rate of patients More recently, Andreessen Horowitz has invested in several healthcare companies, including devoted health, a start-up that specializes in health insurance for the elderly, and eqrx, which just completed a round of $200 million financing last month It is reported that the drugs developed by eqrx are called "equivalents" of new drugs, which are developed on the basis of existing drugs or drugs to be launched They will use their understanding of existing disease biological targets to redesign existing drugs, thereby avoiding some risks in the development process and simplifying the development process They will focus on the development of small molecule drugs, biological products or antibody drugs, focusing on the treatment of cancer, immune inflammatory diseases, and non rare genetic diseases It is expected that in the next few years, the investment company will make greater efforts in the field of biomedicine The company said it will focus on seed round and round a investment, and will also make round B and round C according to the specific situation reference material: [1] This VC firm once pledged to never invest in health care Now it’s launching its third life sciences fund，Retrieved February 13，2020，from https://