Biotech IR Blog by Our CEO and Founder, Laurence Watts.
September 17, 2025
Who Are the Top Venture Capitalists in U.S. Biotech?
For any biotech, securing sufficient funding to progress the development of the company’s drug candidates is vital.
For private companies this typically means a cadence of funding that starts with Seed Capital (at the company’s inception and during its early years), and progresses on to formal Series A, Series B, and even Series C (or later) rounds, before eventually leading to a sale of the company or an IPO.
Who then are the top venture capitalists (VCs) providing funds to biotechs at each of these critical stages?
We took a look at private biotech/pharma financings from 2022-24 to see which were the most active funds in Series A, B and C rounds – since these are the most common financing rounds. In each round, we identified the top 25 VCs (26 in the case of Series A and B financings) based on deal participation.
From the data we accumulated, you can see that a number of names repeat through the lists of Series A, B and C rounds. This is logical since it makes sense that early investors want to maintain their pro rata interest in a company – not to mention that investing over multiple rounds is a key tool for VCs to mitigate risk in their portfolio.
What you’ll also see, however, are funds who favor earlier round investments (8VC, Andreesen Horowitz, Google Ventures, The Column Group, etc.), and funds who predominantly appear in later rounds (Janus Henderson, QIA, T. Rowe, Wellington, etc.), which reflect different risk tolerance/specialty among their respective teams.
The number of successful rounds at each stage tapers down, as one would expect, given the high failure rate in biotechnology (2022-24: 519 Series A rounds; 240 Series B rounds; and 108 Series C rounds).
Likewise, the median size of investment increases at each stage (logical, given that anecdotally Series A < Series B < Series C) (2022-24: Series A – $30.5 million; Series B – $64.0 million; and Series C – $88.0 million).
It’s important to note that past VC activity is not necessarily indicative of future activity (though frequently it is). This is because each of the listed VCs typically “invests” on behalf of multiple overlapping closed funds (usually each 10 years in duration), so future investing activity is dependent on how much “dry powder” a VC has in funds where it is (still) deploying capital. Note: this is not true for the “corporate investors” listed like GV (Google Ventures), Eli Lilly, and Bristol Myers Squibb.
Series A Rounds
We looked at Series A rounds for U.S.-headquartered biotechs and pharma from 2022-24 raising more than $10 million. We found 519 rounds (or 173 per year).
The five biggest deals in that period were:
| Issuer | Size of Round ($ million) | Date |
| Xaira Therapeutics | 1,000 | 4/23/2024 |
| Areteia Therapeutics | 425 | 2/12/2024 |
| Treeline Biosciences | 422 | 8/19/2024 |
| Kailera Therapeutics | 400 | 10/1/2024 |
| Mirador Therapeutics | 400 | 3/21/2024 |
Source: Pitchbook
The median Series A size was $30.5 million.
Based on the number of rounds they participated in, the top five Series A VCs were:
| Venture Capitalist | Number of Series A Rounds |
| Alexendria Venture Investments | 34 |
| ARCH Venture Partners | 28 |
| OrbiMed | 23 |
| Gaingels | 22 |
| RA Capital Management | 20 |
Source: Pitchbook
The Top 26 funds based on the number of biotech/pharma Series A rounds they participated in are as follows (note that to make this list a VC had to have participated in at least 10 financings over the three-year period) (note that funds are listed in alphabetical order):
| Top Series A Biotech VCs by Number of Deals | |||
| 8VC | Alexandria Venture Investments | Alumni Ventures | Andreessen Horowitz |
| ARCH Venture Partners | Calm Ventures | Casdin Capital | Catalio Capital Management |
| Deerfield Management | Digitalis Ventures | Eli Lilly | F-Prime Capital |
| Gaingels | Google Ventures | KdT Ventures | Khosla Ventures |
| Novo Holdings | OrbiMed | Pfizer Ventures | Polaris Partners |
| RA Capital Management | Samsara BioCapital | The Column Group | The Invus Group |
| Third Rock Ventures | Versant Ventures | ||
Source: Pitchbook
Series B Rounds
Next, we looked at Series B rounds for U.S.-headquartered biotechs and pharma from 2022-24. This time, we were interested in rounds raising more than $20 million. We found 240 rounds (or 80 per year).
The five biggest deals in that period were:
| Issuer | Size of Round ($ million) | Date |
| Eikon Therapeutics | 518 | 1/6/23 |
| Candid Therapeutics | 370 | 8/20/24 |
| Metagenomi | 275 | 1/5/23 |
| Cardurion | 260 | 7/10/24 |
| ReCode Therapeutics | 260 | 9/15/23 |
Source: Pitchbook
The median deal size was $64.0 million.
Based on the number of rounds they participated in, the top five Series B VCs were:
| Venture Capitalist | Number of Series B Rounds |
| RA Capital Management | 28 |
| Alexandria Venture Investments | 27 |
| OrbiMed | 25 |
| Casdin Capital | 17 |
| Surveyor Capital | 15 |
Source: Pitchbook
The Top 26 funds based on the number of biotech/pharma Series B rounds they participated in are as follows (note that to make this list a VC had to have participated in at least 9 financings over the three-year period) (note again that funds are listed in alphabetical order):
| Top Series B Biotech VCs by Number of Deals | |||
| Alexandria Venture Investments | Andreessen Horowitz | ARCH Venture Partners | Atlas Venture |
| Bristol-Myers Squibb | BVF Partners | Casdin Capital | Catalio Capital Management |
| Cormorant Asset Management | Deep Track Capital | Eli Lilly | Fidelity Management & Research Company |
| Foresite Capital | F-Prime Capital | Gaingels | Google Ventures |
| Leaps by Bayer | Logos Capital | Nextech Invest | Northpond Ventures |
| OrbiMed | RA Capital Management | Samsara BioCapital | Surveyor Capital |
| T. Rowe Price Group | Third Rock Ventures | ||
Source: Pitchbook
Series C Rounds
Lastly, we looked at Series C rounds for U.S.-headquartered biotechs and pharma from 2022-24 that raised more than $20 million. We found 108 rounds (or 36 per year).
The five biggest deals in that period were:
| Issuer | Size of Round ($ million) | Date |
| Kryia | 430 | 7/26/23 |
| ArsenalBio | 325 | 9/4/24 |
| Acelyrin | 300 | 9/9/22 |
| Tessara Therapeutics | 300 | 4/20/22 |
| Generate:Biomedicines | 273 | 9/6/23 |
Source: Pitchbook
The median deal size was $88.0 million.
Based on the number of rounds they participated in, the top five Series C VCs were:
| Venture Capitalist | Number of Series C Rounds |
| Alexandria Venture Investments | 34 |
| ARCH Venture Partners | 28 |
| OrbiMed | 23 |
| RA Capital Management | 20 |
| Catalio Capital Management | 15 |
Source: Pitchbook
The Top 25 funds based on the number of biotech/pharma Series C rounds they participated in are as follows (note that to make this list a VC had to have participated in at least 9 financings over the three-year period) (note again that funds are listed in alphabetical order):
| Top Series C Biotech VCs by Number of Deals | |||
| Alexandria Venture Investments | ARCH Venture Partners | Bristol-Myers Squibb | Catalio Capital Management |
| Cormorant Asset Management | Cowen Healthcare Investments | Foresite Capital | General Catalyst |
| HBM Healthcare Investments | Janus Henderson Investors | New Enterprise Associates | Nextech Invest |
| Novo Holdings | OrbiMed | Perceptive Advisors | Qatar Investment Authority |
| RA Capital Management | Samsara BioCapital | SoftBank Investment Advisers | SR One Capital Management |
| Surveyor Capital | T. Rowe Price Group | The Invus Group | Wellington Management |
| Woodline Partners | |||
Source: Pitchbook