SAN FRANCISCO, May 11, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Mission Bay Capital, LLC (MBC), a seed-stage venture firm investing in life science companies emerging from the University of California and the San Francisco Bay Area ecosystem, today announced the close of MBC Fund II at $25 million.
MBC was created in August 2009 by QB3, a University of California research institute and accelerator.
"We help early-stage entrepreneurial scientists change the world," said Douglas Crawford, associate director of QB3 and managing partner of MBC. "Closing Fund II will enable us to continue providing the capital and support that our companies need to bring their innovative technologies to market."
Three MBC Fund I companies—Calithera, iPierian and Redwood Bioscience—made successful exits in 2014. Other Fund I companies include Bolt Threads, which works on biologically derived polymers; Principia Pharma, which, this January, completed a Phase I trial of its autoimmune drug PRN1008; and Ocular Dynamics, which licensed its contact lens coating technology to Contamac, the largest contact lens maker in the world.
Fund II investors include several institutions and private individuals, including Jack Wadsworth, honorary chairman at Morgan Stanley Asia; Brook Byers, partner at venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers; the UCSF Foundation; the William K. Bowes, Jr. Foundation; Sobrato Capital; Capital Pacific; Novozymes; Chote Sophonpanich; Michael F. Koehn; and Leslie and Mac McQuown.
"QB3 and its partners have created an ecosystem in Mission Bay which includes MBC and the incubator QB3@953," said Wadsworth. "This ecosystem has attracted a steady stream of bioscience startup investment opportunities."
Wadsworth and Byers are advisors to QB3 and contributed capital to MBC Fund I.
"I am proud to have been an early supporter of MBC, and to watch it become a key part of the Bay Area life science ecosystem, along with QB3's incubators and entrepreneurship programs," said Byers. "With Fund I, the partners and advisors made some great investments that supported world class life science entrepreneurs who have already demonstrated successes. That track record inspired more investors to back Fund II, and raised MBC's profile even higher. Some of the most promising startups are now turning to MBC for early-stage funding and company-building help."
MBC Fund II was oversubscribed. "We would have liked to accommodate all the capital that investors wanted us to accept, but we had decided to cap the fund at $25 million," Crawford said. "The success of Fund I has shown us that there is a need for seed-stage investment in life sciences, and that it pays off."
About Mission Bay Capital, LLC
Mission Bay Capital, LLC, is an independent, seed-stage venture firm focused on making pivotal, early-stage investments in bioscience companies emerging from the University of California and the San Francisco Bay Area ecosystem. Founded in August 2009, Mission Bay Capital combines the rich knowledge and navigation skills of QB3 executives Regis Kelly and Douglas Crawford with the experience and proven success of a renowned pro bono investment advisory committee led by Brook Byers and John Wadsworth. Mission Bay Capital is fueling breakthrough bioscience technologies to meet society's challenges while also helping to boost the California economy.
About QB3
QB3 is a cooperative effort among private industry and more than 250 scientists at UC San Francisco, UC Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz. One of four institutes created in 2000 by former California governor Gray Davis, QB3 has joint missions of supporting science, driving the California economy and transforming research into public good. QB3 commercializes UC research by supporting entrepreneurs and creating mutually beneficial partnerships with industry. The effort has led to the launching of hundreds of biotech startups and significant job creation in the San Francisco Bay Area. QB3 is also affiliated with Mission Bay Capital, an $11.3M seed-stage venture capital fund investing in startups in the UC ecosystem. Visit qb3.org.
CONTACT: Kaspar Mossman, [email protected], 415-514-9790
SOURCE QB3
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