US-based life science investment firm Accelerator Corporation closed its fourth fund at $62.8m yesterday after raising an additional $11.7m from pharmaceutical companies AbbVie and WuXi PharmaTech, and venture capital fund Watson Fund.
Accelerator had already raised capital from limited partners including pharmaceutical firms Eli Lilly, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson, the latter two investing through their Pfizer Venture Investments and Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC subsidiaries, Alexandria Venture Investments, Arch Venture Partners, Harris & Harris Group, Partnership Fund for New York City and WRF Capital.
Founded in 2013, Accelerator has raised more than $100m in capital for its funds, and generally invests up to $2m in early-stage life sciences technology companies. It intends to focus more on novel therapeutics developers with its oversubscribed latest fund.
Thong Q. Le, chief executive of Accelerator, said: “We are pleased to welcome this new group of top tier strategic investors to the Accelerator IV syndicate.
“This additional investment will further enable Accelerator to provide important resources to early-stage life sciences companies focused on bringing innovative research and therapies to patients in need.”
James Sullivan, vice president of pharmaceuticals discovery at AbbVie, will join Accelerator’s board together with Peter Cheney and Tadataka Yamada in conjunction with the fund’s closure.