a16z Launches New Biotech Venture Fund With Eli Lilly

<p><strong>MENLO PARK<&sol;strong> &&num;8212&semi; Andreessen Horowitz &lpar;a16z&rpar; Bio &plus; Health is forming a first-of-its-kind venture capital fund to fuel broader innovation in human health&comma; in partnership with Eli Lilly and Company &lpar;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Lilly”&rpar;&period; The Biotech Ecosystem Venture Fund &lpar;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Fund”&rpar; seeks to drive transformative progress in healthcare by investing in therapeutic platforms and cutting-edge technology companies that can bring new medicines and disease treatments to improve patients’ lives&period; Managed by a16z Bio &plus; Health&comma; the Fund will deploy up to &dollar;500 million to invest in companies at all stages &&num;8211&semi; from company creation to growth&period; The Fund will focus on advancing the development of new medicines&comma; enabling novel modality platforms&comma; and scaling emerging health technologies&period; As a complementary source of capital to traditional venture funding&comma; the Fund will take a long-term view to enable disruptive companies to realize the full potential of new biological science&comma; engineering technologies&comma; and AI capabilities&period; The Fund aims to foster a technology ecosystem of ambitious bio &plus; health entrepreneurs and innovators&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Vineeta Agarwala&comma; M&period;D&period;&comma; Ph&period;D&comma; general partner at a16z Bio &plus; Health&comma; stated&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The Biotech Ecosystem Venture Fund seeks to enable visionary founders to create enduring solutions in biotech and healthcare&period; Combining our strengths as organizations will empower founders with not only the venture backing needed to advance groundbreaking technologies&comma; but also the resources needed to strategically select the most promising application areas for these platforms&period; The creation of this new fund signifies a shared passion and commitment with Lilly to deliver truly meaningful change in our ability to treat and care for people living with disease&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Fund leverages the strengths of a16z in sourcing&comma; building&comma; and scaling bio &plus; health companies&comma; and combines it with Lilly’s deep expertise in life science R&amp&semi;D&period; Beyond contributing all the capital&comma; Lilly will have the ability to provide additional resources to the companies&comma; including Catalyze360<sup>™<&sol;sup> which is a specialized support structure for biotech startups that includes Lilly Ventures&comma; Lilly Gateway Labs<sup>Ⓡ<&sol;sup>&comma; and Lilly ExplorR&amp&semi;D<sup>™<&sol;sup>– all of which provide biotech startups with access to world-class pre-clinical and clinical drug development talent and resources&period; Together&comma; a16z’s distinct experience at the intersection of life sciences and technology&comma; and Lilly’s scientific&comma; clinical&comma; and commercial expertise create an alliance powered to overcome complex challenges within the healthcare ecosystem&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;Catalyze360 was created to accelerate the success of emerging biotech startups by providing access to people&comma; tools&comma; capabilities&comma; and expertise that is traditionally hard for early-stage companies to reach&comma;” said Nisha Nanda&comma; Ph&period;D&period;&comma; group vice president&comma; Catalyze360&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;With the Biotech Ecosystem Fund&comma; we can further scale our work to empower entrepreneurs as they work to bring transformative therapies to patients faster&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;