Life sciences investment firm BEVC is raising a $25 million fund targeting climate startups, according to an SEC filing.
BEVC is a newcomer, having only launched last year in Berkeley, California. All three co-founders have backgrounds in life sciences, as did its first two investments, Radar Therapeutics and Insamo. But the new filing suggests that its first formal fund will be targeted at climate tech startups.
This dual focus makes BEVC the latest life sciences investor to broaden its scope beyond human health to include planetary health: Last year, veteran life sciences investor RA Capital hired a planetary health team, and last month, Flagship Pioneering, one of the largest biotech VCs, raised $3.6 billion to invest in health, sustainability and AI startups.
Why the dual focus? “You can't have healthy people in an unhealthy environment,” Kyle Teamy, managing partner at RA Capital Planetary Health, told me in December.
BEVC's co-founders all have PhDs in life sciences and come from both executive and investment backgrounds. Rowan Chapman has a PhD in biochemistry and molecular biology and was previously head of innovation at Johnson & Johnson and led healthcare investments at GE Ventures. Vidya Muriyasasmita has a PhD in bioengineering, was co-founder of Olilax Biosciences and was most recently a senior principal at B Capital Group. Lisa Stack has a PhD in immunology and was co-founder of electronics startup Menlo Micro and previously worked at RA Capital, GE Ventures and Kleiner Perkins.
The company's advisory board also brings with it extensive experience in the life sciences, including Nobel Prize winners Jennifer Doudna and Carolyn Bertozzi, David Shaffer, executive director of the University of California, Berkeley's QB3 biological sciences institute, and Robert Chang, former director of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.