Life sciences investor BEVC raising $25M climate fund

Life sciences investor BEVC is raising a $25 million fund aimed at climate-related startups, according to an SEC filing.

BEVC is new on the scene, having been founded just last year in Berkeley, Calif. Its three co-founders all have backgrounds in the life sciences, and its first two investments, Radar Therapeutics and Insamo, were also in the life sciences. But the new filing suggests its first formal fund will be targeting climate tech startups.

The dual focus would make BEVC the latest life sciences investor to broaden its remit to include planetary health, not just human 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? “In an unhealthy environment, you just don’t have healthy people,” RA Capital Planetary Health managing partner Kyle Teamey told me in December.

BEVC’s co-founders all have PhDs in life sciences and backgrounds as both operators and investors. Rowan Chapman has a PhD in biochemistry and molecular biology, and she was previously head of innovation at Johnson & Johnson and led healthcare investing for GE Ventures. Widya Mulyasasmita has a PhD in bioengineering, co-founded OliLux Biosciences, and was most recently a senior principal at B Capital Group. Risa Stack has a PhD in immunology, co-founded electronics startup Menlo Micro, and previously worked at RA Capital, GE Ventures, and Kleiner Perkins.

The firm’s advisers also represent a deep bench of experiences in the life sciences, including Jennifer Doudna and Carolyn Bertozzi, both Nobel Prize winners; David Schaffer, executive director of UC Berkeley’s biosciences institute QB3; and Robert Tjian, former president of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

The firm did not immediately respond to a request for comment.