Perceptive Advisors raises $210M for its Inaugural Fund to invest in early-stage biotech startups​

Perceptive Advisors, an investment management firm focused in life sciences, has closed $210 for its inaugural venture capital fund, the Perceptive Xontogeny Venture Fund, LP (the “PXV Fund”), solely focused on investment in early-stage life science companies. The PXV Fund will be focused exclusively on life sciences technologies across therapeutic areas with a greater emphasis on drug technologies and less focus on early drug and platform discovery. The general goal of PXV Fund’s Series A financings will be advancing a product/technology from a preclinical lead into or through early clinical development.

Founded in 1999 and based in New York, NY, Perceptive Advisors is an investment management firm focused on supporting the progress of the life sciences industry by identifying opportunities and directing financial resources to the most promising technologies in healthcare.

The PXV Fund complements Perceptive Advisors’ Life Sciences Master and Credit Opportunities Funds as it will be solely focused on early-stage venture capital and expects to be the sole or predominant lead investor in Series A rounds in the range of $10-20 million with capacity to participate in subsequent Series B rounds. The PXV Fund is led by Chris Garabedian, Portfolio Manager, who also serves as Chairman and CEO of Xontogeny. Xontogeny is a Boston-based accelerator that provides seed investments along with strategic and operational support to early-stage life science companies through its professional staff and network of consultants and service providers.

“Perceptive has one of the best and most consistent track records in assessing life science technologies and I’m excited to lead this new strategy with the PXV Fund to enable investments in early-stage development companies,” said Chris Garabedian, Portfolio Manager of the PXV Fund. “Our goal is simply to apply a more capital-efficient model of early drug development by actively managing a select number of the best opportunities with a focus on a successful and expedited path to compelling clinical proof-of-concept data – historically, a key driver of outsized returns. We are gratified by the trust and enthusiasm our broad base of limited partners has shown in this strategy and our goal of product-focused, data-driven, value creation.”

“We have known Chris for almost 10 years and he is one of the most skilled operators we’ve come across in the industry and is the best person to lead this strategy and new fund for Perceptive,” said Joseph Edelman, Chief Executive Officer of Perceptive Advisors. “Chris is fully integrated with our team of analysts to help select the best investments, and his Xontogeny team provides a steady pipeline of opportunities for the fund through their sourcing, evaluation, and incubation of startups with seed financing and active operational management.”

The PXV Fund will benefit from the Xontogeny model and its ability to seed finance, incubate and de-risk early-stage technologies by providing proven operational expertise, a more capital-efficient structure, and a strong partnership in advising and mentoring entrepreneurs and scientific founders, who will benefit from a team with deep industry experience. The Xontogeny team will assist emerging companies in successfully navigating the development pathway from lead preclinical asset to clinical proof of concept. The PXV Fund also has the ability to invest directly in companies that have received previous seed financing or convertible equity and are more mature in their development and management team build-out but are seeking their first institutional Series A financing.