New Firm Seeks to Bridge Traditional Venture Capital and Venture Philanthropy to Advance Therapies for Immune Disorders

Rare Daily Staff

A new life sciences investment firm, focused on bridging venture capital and venture philanthropy, has launched to develop therapies for people with immune disorders.

The newly formed Vie Ventures said it will invest alongside other leading venture capital investors and strategic partners primarily in series B and C-stage biotech companies focused on advancing novel therapeutics for autoimmune diseases and other disorders of the immune system, an area of significant unmet medical need.

The firm is co-founded by Steven St. Peter and Luke Evnin, who each bring a strong track record of life sciences investing and operational leadership. St. Peter and Evnin previously worked together for a decade at MPM Capital, where they invested three successive venture capital funds. They bring deep personal connections to autoimmune diseases and philanthropy.

They have pledged a share of their own proceeds and time to philanthropic efforts, including the formation of the Vie Ventures Foundation, a public charity whose mission is to accelerate innovation in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of autoimmune and inflammatory diseases.

Most recently, St. Peter served as managing director of the T1D Fund, the venture philanthropy arm of Breakthrough T1D (formerly known as JDRF), which focuses on equity investments in companies pursuing therapies for type 1 diabetes (T1D). Under his leadership, the T1D Fund grew to become one of the largest disease-focused venture philanthropy funds in the world, with more than $200 million in assets.

Evnin, who co-founded MPM Capital, serves as chairman of the Scleroderma Research Foundation (SRF), where he has been on the board for more than 25 years. Under his leadership, the SRF has pursued new research models, exemplified by the recently launched CONQUEST clinical trial platform for scleroderma.

The two believe that participation in life sciences venture capital from across the biotech ecosystem—disease-focused philanthropies, research foundations, and biopharmaceutical companies—is critical to translating discovery research into development toward regulatory approval and achieving their mission of advancing innovative therapeutics for patients.

The firm has launched with support from a growing coalition of strategic collaborators that have funded billions of dollars of discovery research. The firm’s initial strategic collaborators include the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation, Lupus Research Alliance, National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Scleroderma Research Foundation, and Sjögren’s Foundation.

Vie Ventures is also guided by Lou DeGennaro, the former CEO of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, who serves as a senior advisor and leads the firm’s strategic collaborator engagement efforts.

“As novel technologies continues to enable breakthrough treatments and potential for prevention, there has never been a more exciting time in immunology. However, despite the rapid innovation taking place within biotechnology, significant unmet patient needs remain,” said St. Peter, managing director of Vie Ventures. “We see a compelling opportunity to leverage our team’s decades of differentiated experience to serve as a bridge between disease-focused philanthropies and the for-profit world funding therapeutics. This bridge is unique, and we believe it will enable us to make more informed investment decisions, be a value-added investment partner for our portfolio companies, and increase the probability they succeed.

Photo: Steven St. Peter and Luke Evnin