RA Capital Management (RA Capital) is an American investment firm based in Boston. It is focused on making public and private investments in the

healthcare Health care, or healthcare, is the improvement or maintenance of health via the preventive healthcare, prevention, diagnosis, therapy, treatment, wikt:amelioration, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other disability, physic ...

biotechnology Biotechnology is a multidisciplinary field that involves the integration of natural sciences and Engineering Science, engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms and parts thereof for products and services. Specialists ...

, and

planetary health Planetary Health is a multi- and transdisciplinary research paradigm, a new science for exceptional action, and a global movement. Planetary health refers to "the health of human civilization and the state of the natural systems on which it depends" ...

industries.

History

The company that would become RA Capital was started in 2001 by Richard Aldrich, a co-founder of

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated is an American biopharmaceutical company based in Boston, Massachusetts. It was one of the first biotech firms to use an explicit strategy of rational drug design rather than combinatorial chemistry. It maint ...

. In 2002, Aldrich hired Peter Kolchinskly, who was earning his doctorate in virology from Harvard, to invest $4 million of seed money in biotech. RA Capital, named after Aldrich, was officially formed in 2004. The firm was initially set up as hedge fund that invested in public companies although it would later invest in private companies as well. RA Capital has an in-house research group, named TechAtlas that creates its disease-specific maps. One of the firm's earliest successful investments was its investment into Triangle Pharmaceuticals which

Gilead Sciences Gilead Sciences, Inc. () is an American biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Foster City, California, that focuses on researching and developing antiviral drugs used in the treatment of HIV/AIDS, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, influenza, and CO ...

acquired for $464 million in early 2003. Aldrich left RA Capital in 2009 to start Longwood Fund, a

venture capital Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to start-up company, startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in ...

firm although he still remains an investor in RA Capital. In 2009, RA Capital assets fell by 35.3% due to its large investment in

Sequenom Sequenom, Inc. is an American company based in San Diego, California. It develops enabling molecular technologies, and highly sensitive laboratory genetic tests for NIPT. Sequenom's wholly owned subsidiary, Sequenom Center for Molecular Medicin ...

which lost 90% of its market value after it admitted it had falsified data on its tests for Down syndrome treatment. As a result, the firm limited individual investments to 15% of the firm's assets. The firm made one of its first private investments in 2010 when it participated in a $15 million

series C A venture round is a type of funding round used for venture capital financing, by which startup companies obtain investment, generally from venture capitalists and other institutional investors. The availability of venture funding is among the p ...

round for T2 Biosystems. In 2014, the

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street crash of 1929. Its primary purpose is to enforce laws against market m ...

announced it had sanctioned nineteen firms that illegally participated in stock offerings less than five days after

short selling In finance, being short in an asset means investing in such a way that the investor will profit if the market value of the asset falls. This is the opposite of the more common Long (finance), long Position (finance), position, where the inves ...

the stock. RA Capital was one of the firms and agreed to pay the largest amount out of them with

disgorgement Disgorgement is the act of giving up something on demand or by legal compulsion, for example giving up profits that were obtained illegally. In United States regulatory law, disgorgement is often a civil remedy imposed by some regulatory agenci ...

of $2.65 million, interest of $73,000 and a $905,000 penalty. As of 2015, the firm has delivered an annualized return of 28.4% since its founding. In 2019, the firm launched its first venture fund, RA Capital Nexus Fund I which raised $300 million. In 2019, the firm started an incubator called Carnot to test the viability of early-stage

companies. As of 2020, the firm had begun operating an incubator program called RAVentures to help develop new and early-stage companies working in biotechnology. In 2020, the firm’s second venture fund, Nexus Fund II, raised $461 million. The firm’s third venture fund, Nexus Fund III, raised $880 million in 2021. In 2023, the firm founded a team to focus on investments in

. In its first year, RA Capital Planetary Health participated in a $30.5 million

round for a recycling startup and a $30 million

series B A venture round is a type of funding round used for venture capital financing, by which startup companies obtain investment, generally from venture capitalists and other institutional investors. The availability of venture funding is among the ...

round for a battery equipment startup.

References

External links

* {{authority control American companies established in 2002 Financial services companies established in 2002 Financial services companies based in Massachusetts Hedge fund firms in Boston Privately held companies based in Massachusetts Venture capital firms of the United States Private equity firms of the United States