nice snipe
scientizm for hire
Lux Capital’s Peter Hébert thinks VCs aren’t countering the federal funding cuts enough
VCs need to step up their support of American scientists whose federal research funding has been cut, Lux Capital co-founder Peter Hébert told PitchBook.
As its latest move on this front, Lux is backing Roadrunner Venture Studios, a new accelerator-like program to help startups incubated out of national labs in New Mexico, including Los Alamos and Sandia.
“We want to both incentivize and reward brilliant American scientists,” said Hébert, but “we can’t, of course, do it alone.” At One Ventures, Crosslink Capital, Khosla Ventures and Playground Global are also investing in the program.
https://pitchbook.com/news/articles/lux-capital-peter-hebert-vc-investors-doge-research-funding-cuts-roadrunne
(picrel)
Key investment trends:
Synthetic biology and AI platforms dominate megarounds: Colossal Biosciences secured a $200 million Series C for its CRISPR-based de-extinction platform, while AI-driven drug discovery platforms like Chai Discovery and Bioptimus attracted $60 million and $41.4 million, respectively.
Spatial biology and multiomics tools gain momentum: Stellaromics' $80 million Series B for its gene expression analysis technology and Quibim's $50 million Series A for its precision health imaging technology highlight growing investor interest in next-generation analytical platforms.
https://pitchbook.com/news/reports/q1-2025-pharma-biotools-vc-trends?
Two Manhattan office buildings trade for $116 million less than they did in 2017
A pair of Midtown office buildings have sold for just over $40 million — a whopping $116 million less than they last traded for eight years ago, records show.
https://www.crainsnewyork.com/real-estate/two-office-buildings-midtown-manhattan-trade-hands-408-million