Announcing Omega Funds' latest fundraise: Fund VIII

I woke up today to a lot of (very kind) emails and sms', reminding me today was the day that we actually got around announcing our latest fundraise... Delighted to announce the closing of our Omega Funds' latest vintage (Fund VIII: time does fly when you are having fun). Essentially the same size as Fund VII, at ~650M, this fundraise happened in the context of a very challenging macro backdrop for venture investing in general and biotech in particular, with public market indexes in the space having been in the doldrums since Feb. 2021. Lots of lessons there to unpack, which might (or might not) be the topic of a future post. We were helped in our raise by many things: a) Of course, we would not have been able to achieve this without the help of our amazing and long-standing investors (as well as some new ones); b) Our consistent exit track record (with many trade sales and (less frequently) IPOs), with the pace of our exits actually accelerating since Jan. 2022. Some of them (not all, there was not enough space...) were listed in the PR : https://lnkd.in/dMYFgHnJ; c) And, last but absolutely not least, the incredible management teams we have the great fortune of working with through thick and thin! Allison DeAngelis was kind enough to interview me (again) as I was traveling about this latest raise (see: https://lnkd.in/diHiAJiK). In the interview I make some comparison between biotech drug investing and Italian cooking, FYI. Thanks also to Kyle LaHucik of Endpoints News for a very thoughtful (and thorough) interview about our latest fundraise: you will find inside the article (https://lnkd.in/dHZpVg3n) a few comments on the current environment for start-ups in our space. Thanks to the entire Omega team for their hard work in getting us here: we are all very excited to continue to assist the healthcare drug development and innovation process with this new fund, and to add to our roster of 52 (yes, 52!) drug approved from our portfolio companies, leading to 50 M&A exits and 47 IPOs since summer 2004. #biotech, #venturecapital, #drugdiscovery, #drugdevelopment