Osage University Partners, a Bala Cynwyd, Pa.–based venture capital firm, closed its third fund, at $273m.
Led by Managing Partners Marc Singer, William Harrington, MD, and Robert Adelson, Osage University Partners III, L.P., is dedicated to investments exclusively in startups that are commercializing university research in the labs of its partner institutions.
The fund has signed exclusive long-term contracts with 19 Core Partners including leading research universities in the U.S. This includes 15 renewing Core Partners from previous funds as well as 4 new Core Partners. It also has non-exclusive Associate Partner relationships with an additional 79 universities, research institutions, and accelerators in the U.S. and abroad.
Typically, these institutions hold co-investment rights in their spinouts, which they assign to OUP III in return for a share of the fund’s profit.
OUP III will invest in companies across all sectors of life sciences and technology, and across all stages of development, from seed to late stage/pre-IPO. It expects to invest in about 40-50 university startups.
OUP II, a $215m fund closed in 2015, backed several university spinouts that have gone public, including Aptinyx (APTX), Biohaven Pharma (BHVN), Kura Oncology (KURA), Homology Medicines (FIXX), Selecta Biosciences (SELB), Spero Therapeutics (SPRO), and Synthorx (THOR). The fund has also had two recent and portfolio exits via acquisition: Body Labs was acquired by Amazon and Cell Design Labs was acquired by Gilead Sciences.
The closing of OUP III coincided with the promotion of Matt Cohen, PhD, to Partner. Cohen joined OUP in 2013 and focuses on investments in life sciences. OUP made two additional promotions on its investment team. Manny Stockman, PhD, was promoted to Principal on the tech team. Anurag Agarwal, PhD, was promoted to Senior Associate on the life science team.
OUP is part of a family of investment funds within Osage Partners, which is based just outside Philadelphia, PA and manages in excess of $800 million.
FinSMEs
13/03/2019