SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Genoa Ventures, the pioneering venture firm investing in the convergence of biology and technology, today announced the successful close of $84 million for Genoa Ventures Fund II. The new fund will continue Genoa’s investing focus on startups innovating in markets as diverse as research tools, diagnostics, Agri/Food Bio, and industrial bio. Genoa’s first fund proved this intersection can transform industries and achieve top-tier venture returns – as seen through portfolio company growth and acquisitions, including the acquisition of Intabio by SCIEX in 2021.
Genoa’s oversubscribed fund nearly tripled Fund I raised in 2018 while maintaining the early-stage focus and small incremental investing in Seed and Series A companies. The Genoa philosophy centers on strategic guidance and staged investing to ensure institutional best practices during the earliest stages of a company’s journey, while also promoting portfolio diversity and fund sizes that align with top-tier venture capital returns.
Until Genoa, most venture funds with life sciences expertise invested mainly in therapeutics companies, leaving a gap in the venture capital marketplace for startups that are bio-based but not therapeutics-focused. Jenny Rooke, Ph.D., Genoa’s Founder and Managing Director, believed there was an opportunity to invest in different kinds of companies, leveraging technological advances to solve big biological problems and the advancements of engineered biology to become powerful technologies themselves.
“Early in my career, I realized the potential of convergent product-based companies to create entirely new solutions that are bigger than the sum of their parts, with the potential to transform industries. I saw the limitations of traditional, siloed life science investing and firms’ hyperfocus on drug development companies. The venture community was missing transformative companies outside the traditional biotherapeutic and technology markets with solutions that didn’t fit into existing categories,” said Dr. Rooke.
“We are enormously grateful to our Limited