Third Rock Ventures closed the Third Rock Ventures Fund VI with $1.1 billion in commitments with the aim of building up biotech companies employing a hands-on approach with founders.
Fund VI is able to provide both initial Series A investment as well as follow-on capital to support companies throughout their lifecycle. Third Rock officials plan to allocate capital from Fund VI to invest in groundbreaking new companies from in the broader biotech ecosystem that are strongly aligned with Third Rock’s mission and strategy. The Boston-based firm will invest in approximately 10 biotech companies in the new fund.
“An important differentiator for Third Rock is the strength and maturity of our ideation ecosystem,” said Reid Huber, partner at Third Rock. “Our discovery pipeline is as robust as it has ever been, and with our established and proven model for integrating deep scientific and medical expertise with operational and business acumen, we are uniquely positioned to advance these innovations to patients.”
In addition to Huber, partners of Fund VI are Abbie Celniker, Neil Exter, Kevin Gillis, David Kaufman, M.D., Cary Pfeffer, M.D., Robert Tepper, M.D., and Jeffrey Tong. Third Rock also promoted Dodzie Sogah to venture partner. Dr. Sogah came to the firm in 2021 as an entrepreneur-in-residence, and now joins a team of business and scientific leaders in the venture partner role.
The $3.8 billion firm has invested in 60 companies. Importantly, companies across the portfolio have brought 18 products to the market across multiple therapeutic modalities and a broad range of disease indications including cancer, cardiovascular disease, depression, sickle cell disease, and rare genetic diseases among others.
“Over the course of our 15-year history, our focus on creating companies aimed at improving the lives of patients has not wavered,” said Gillis, partner and chief operating officer at Third Rock. “We have built a leading investor base that is supportive of our differentiated model that is hands on, team oriented, value creation driven, and built for the long term. We appreciate the strong support from existing limited partners and welcome our new investors.”
