Venture Capital · Profile from Venture Capital Research Companion
Versant Ventures
A healthcare venture firm born in 1999 out of the Brentwood / IVP / Crosspoint reshuffle that, after a difficult post-2008 period, reinvented itself as a biotech company-creation shop, building startups inside its own wet-lab "Discovery Engines" in San Diego, Vancouver, Toronto, New York and Basel, and selling a run of them to large pharma (Kythera, BlueRock, Vividion, Chinook) while also producing some instructive public-market casualties (Gritstone, Graphite Bio).
At a glance
- Founded
- 1999, Menlo Park, California (initially organised under the name Palladium Venture Capital, reported, and soon renamed Versant Ventures)
- Founders
- Healthcare partners from Brentwood Associates, Institutional Venture Partners (IVP) and Crosspoint Venture Partners. Founding partners are reported to include Samuel Colella (IVP), Ross Jaffe and Brian Atwood (Brentwood), Donald Milder (Crosspoint), Barbara Lubash, Rebecca Robertson and William Link (verify roster)
- Headquarters
- San Francisco (One Sansome Street); offices or labs in San Diego, Vancouver, Toronto, New York and Basel
- Ownership / structure
- Private partnership (Versant Venture Management, LLC); institutional LPs; flagship funds supplemented by a Canadian companion series (Voyageurs) and a later-stage "opportunity" series (Vantage)
- Leadership (2026)
- Bradley (Brad) Bolzon, chairman and managing director; managing directors including Jerel Davis, Alex Mayweg, Clare Ozawa and Tom Woiwode (named in the 2021 fund announcement; verify current roster)
- AUM / capital raised
- ~$4.2bn AUM stated by the firm in 2021 (also cited for 2023); ~$1.65bn raised across 2018–21 alone
- Stage focus
- Seed and Series A company creation in therapeutics (about half of capital in companies built in-house), plus later-stage follow-ons via Vantage funds; US, Canada and Europe
- Signature investments
- Kythera Biopharmaceuticals, CRISPR Therapeutics, BlueRock Therapeutics, Vividion Therapeutics, Chinook Therapeutics, Monte Rosa Therapeutics, Century Therapeutics, Borealis Biosciences; failures / reverses: Gritstone bio (Chapter 11, 2024), Graphite Bio (clinical halt, reverse-merged 2024)
10 deals and moves analysed
Each one gets a full strategy file in the companion: context, the decision, the financing, what happened, and the lesson.
2005
Kythera Biopharmaceuticals
Founding Series A
2014
CRISPR Therapeutics
Series A
2015
Gritstone Oncology
Series A
2016
BlueRock Therapeutics
Series A
2017
Vividion Therapeutics
Series A
2018
Monte Rosa Therapeutics
Incubation / Series A
2019
Century Therapeutics
Series A
2019
Chinook Therapeutics
Incubation / Series A
2020
Graphite Bio
Series A / B
2024
Borealis Biosciences
Series A