AN Venture Partners Announces Final Close of $200M Fund I, MUFG & SMBC Participate
AN Venture Partners (ANV), a global biotech venture capital firm, announced the final close of its first fund, AN Venture Partners I, achieving its target of USD 200m (JPY 29bn), one of the largest Japan-focused biotech venture capital funds to date, and also one of the largest first-time biotech venture capital funds raised in the past year.
More than 20 Limited Partners (LPs) have invested in the fund, led by Japan Investment Corporation, Shionogi & Co., Otsuka Pharmaceutical, MUFG Bank, and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation.
ANV was founded in 2022 in alliance with ARCH Venture Partners, one of the leading venture capital firms in the global biotechnology field.
ANV will invest across all stages, from pre-proof-of-concept to advanced clinical stages, and sources, whether academia, big pharma spin-outs or combinations thereof, in biotech and biotech-related fields. The fund is interested in all modalities and disease spaces that can have significant clinical impact. ANV will focus on science originating in Japan but can invest globally as well. Given the current ecosystem in Japan, ANV will often take an active role in company-creation and work hand-in-hand with the founders to build global biotech companies.
To date, the firm has invested in seven companies, including Capacity Bio, Typewriter Therapeutics, City Therapeutics, and Imbria Pharmaceuticals. City Therapeutics successfully completed a significant series A round and announced important strategic collaborations with large global pharma companies. Typewriter Therapeutics has been selected by the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED) as a recipient of the “Strengthening Program for Pharmaceutical Startup Ecosystem” and has gained access to financial support to expedite its development. A further three companies are currently in stealth mode.
In addition to making its own investments, ANV is also working to advance the Japanese government’s flagship policy of establishing the country as a leader in the field of biotechnology by 2030. In accordance with this initiative, the firm has been officially accredited as a certified venture capital by AMED.
The ANV team is also collaborating with leading academics at major Japanese universities, the Cabinet office and a number of other government agencies to promote development of the biotech ecosystem in Japan.
It has also brought the Science-to-Startup (S2S) event from the US to Japan, holding a successful first event in November 2024 that attracted almost 200 scientists, entrepreneurs and investors. The initiative aims to bridge cutting-edge life science research with practical applications. It strengthens Japan's biotech ecosystem by connecting researchers with global venture capital firms and creating opportunities to present commercialization ideas to investors and pharmaceutical companies.
Norbert Gehrke
