VC firm raises $350 million for startups

The past couple of years have been brutal for Massachusetts biotechs, with share prices of publicly traded companies plunging, the appetite for initial public offerings dwindling, firms laying off workers, and demand for real estate shrinking. That didn’t stop a recently established Boston venture capital firm from collecting $350 million in its first fund-raising effort to bankroll promising biotech startups. Cure Ventures, which was founded in 2021, announced the sum on Tuesday and said it intends to invest it primarily in early-stage biotechs with “groundbreaking curative technologies,” including treatments spawned in university labs or later-stage drugs licensed from established pharmaceutical companies. David Fallace, a managing partner and cofounder of Cure, said he expects the venture capital firm will make seed investments of $250,000 to $6 million in 20 startups. He predicted 12 to 15 of those ventures will show enough promise to each receive $15 million to $20 million in follow-up investments from Cure, as well as money from other investors. Executives at Cure will likely serve as interim leaders of the budding startups, Fallace said, a common practice at life sciences venture capital firms. Ultimately, the goal for many venture capitalists is to take the most promising startups public or to sell them or some of their pharmaceutical assets to bigger drug firms. Fallace said he and his partners are open to a wide range of cutting-edge ideas and aren’t focusing on a particular disease or treatment approach, such as gene editing. — JONATHAN SALTZMAN