SAN FRANCISCO & NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Foresite Capital, a growth equity firm focused on late-stage healthcare investing, today announced the closing of Foresite Capital Fund II, which was oversubscribed and closed with $300 million in capital commitments. Foresite Capital finances transformative late stage companies across all healthcare sectors. Fund II follows Foresite Capital Fund I, a $100 million fund that closed in January 2013.
"Since founding Foresite Capital in 2011, we have seen several portfolio companies grow into billion dollar plus businesses," said Jim Tananbaum, founder and CEO of Foresite Capital. "Healthcare is an enormous segment of the US economy and we are grateful for the strong interest from our existing and new investors who value our investment strategy. We look forward to helping usher innovation to the healthcare market.”
Foresite Capital also announced a $57 million investment in the Series DD financing of Intarcia Therapeutics, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company developing innovative therapies that merge medicine with technology and have the potential to transform therapeutic categories including Type II Diabetes, and an $18 million investment in a secondary purchase of Universal American (NYSE: UAM) at $6.03 a share.
“Intarcia is a perfect example of what we look for; the management team led by Kurt Graves is exceptional, it has a Phase III asset that is revolutionary and it has the potential to dramatically reshape the treatment of Type II diabetes,” continued Tananbaum. "Universal American is another example of a classic Foresite investment with strong leadership, significant existing value and validation, and a prime position to lead the transition of care in the Medicare population."
Foresite Capital Team
Foresite Capital was founded by Jim Tananbaum to provide growth capital to healthcare companies with proven technologies, products or services. Additional Managing Directors include investment professionals Dorothy Margolskee, Matt Buten and Christine Aylward and Chief Financial Officer Dennis Ryan. Foresite Capital was purposely built as a deep, multidisciplinary and coordinated team to optimize sourcing and evaluating investment opportunities and to accelerate the growth of its portfolio companies. The team possesses diverse experience in the healthcare sector and expertise in finance, clinical and product development, commercialization, and private and public healthcare investing.
About Foresite Capital
Foresite Capital invests in late-stage companies with transformative technologies, products and services across all sectors of healthcare. Current portfolio companies include AcelRx Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: ACRX), Ambit Biosciences (Nasdaq: AMBI), Biodelivery Sciences International (Nasdaq: BDSI), Biota Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: BOTA), Ignyta Inc (Nasdaq:RXDX), Intarcia Therapeutics, Karyopharm (Nasdaq: KPTI), Keryx Biopharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: KERX), Novavax (Nasdaq: NVAX), Orexigen Therapeutics (Nasdaq: OREX), Puma Biotechnology (NYSE: PBYI), Sequenta, Tarsa Therapeutics, Universal American (NYSE: UAM), Wave Tec Vision Systems and Xencor. Foresite Capital is based in San Francisco, CA with an office in New York, NY.