Versant Ventures sets up shop in Vancouver, invests in Inception 4
U.S. life sciences-focused venture capital firm Versant Ventures has provided $10 million in Series A funding to a new company called Inception 4, which is focused on the development of drugs to treat retinal eye disease, including wet age-related macular degeneration. The deal was done in partnership with Bayer Healthcare, and will be managed by Versant's new Vancouver-based incubator Inception Sciences Canada. In another announcement, Versant said it plans to establish similar operations in Montréal in 2014. Versant also recently formed an incubator in Toronto, called Blueline Bioscience, which is collaborating with Celgene to launch new companies in areas such as oncology and inflammation. The firm said it is making a long-term commitment to Canada to translate scientific discoveries in academic institutions into early stage biotechnology enterprises.
