Managers

L.A. pension commits to Pear Ventures

LAFPP has committed about $90 million to VC funds so far this year

Merge Growth Advisors targets $50 mln for venture fund

Merge Growth Advisors LLC is seeking to raise $50 million for its new venture fund, according to an SEC filing. The Nashville-based advisory and investment firm specializes in merging like-companies for growth and exit strategies.

ArcTern Ventures wraps up sophomore fund

Toronto-based ArcTern Ventures, a venture firm that invests in clean tech companies, has closed its second fund at $200 million. The fund's investors include TD Bank Group, Suncor, BDC, The Ivey Foundation and another Canadian pension fund. The anchor investors were OMERS and Equinor, a Norwegian energy company. Last October, ArcTen raised $60 million in the first closing of its second fund, as reported by PE HUB. ArcTern’s Managing Partners Murray McCaig and Tom Rand co-founded ArcTern Ventures in 2012.

DCVC closes its fifth fund, its largest to date

San Francisco-based DCVC, an investor in deep tech, announced it has raised $725 million for its fifth main fund. The fund is more than three times the $234 million the firm raised for Fund IV in 2016. DCVC V is the firm's largest vehicle to date and will back early-stage deep tech deals and later-stage opportunities from its portfolio. DCVC earlier this year raised about $208 million for its first biotech fund.

VC-backed Insitro beefs up team with two new appointments

South San Francisco-based Insitro, a machine-learning driven drug discovery and development company, has appointed Dr. Matthew Rasmussen as vice president of data engineering and Duane Valz as general counsel. Rasmussen joins insitro from Myriad Genetics while Valz worked at Zymergen. Insitro's backers include Alexandria Venture Investments, Bezos Expeditions, Mubadala Investment Company, Two Sigma Ventures and Verily.

Lightbox Ventures collects over $209 mln for third fund

Lightbox Ventures has raised over $209 million for its third fund, according to an SEC filing. The Mumbai-based venture firm focuses on consumer technology companies.

CPPIB recruits Facebook’s Monica Adractas to lead VC funds strategy

She helped launch Facebook's Workplace in 2016 and for nearly three years served as a global director.

VC-backed twoXAR adds new SVP to team

Mountain View, California-based twoXAR Inc, an artificial intelligence-driven biopharmaceutical company, has appointed Dr. Allen Poirson as senior vice president of biopharmaceutical business development. Poirson is the former CEO of Sony Biotechnology. TwoXAR's backers included SoftBank Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, OS Fund, CLI Ventures and the Stanford-StartX Fund.

Emerging manager-focused placement agent Pacenote launches

Pacenote Capital will seek relationships with late-stage venture, as well as independent sponsors and lower-mid market buyout funds.

Mission Bay Capital raises $60 mln for third fund

Mission Bay Capital, an early-stage life science venture firm, has closed its third fund at $60 million. The fund's investors included Astellas Venture Management, Banyan Pacific Capital, Eli Lilly and Company, Mayfield, UC Investments, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati and Zambon.