Splicing For Dollars

摘要

Late last year, as venture capital firms left and right were returning money to investors because they could find no place to put it, MPM Capital dropped a bomb on Silicon Valley: The firm, focused solely on health care investing, raked in $900 million, the largest venture fund raised all year, and the largest health fund ever. Eyebrows went up over how, in this risk-averse climate, a firm could reach $2.1 billion under management in only six years. "It used to take a decade to raise $2 billion," says Jean-Francois Formela, partner at Atlas Venture. Now all eyes are on MPM (stands for Medical Portfolio Management) and what it decides to do with so much money. In the 1990s the kings of venture earned their fortunes from big bets on broadband and the Web. Now it's biotech's turn. In the first nine months of this year $3.4 billion in venture money poured into health care companies in the U.S., accounting for 28% of all venture funds invested, according to VentureOne, up from 10% in 2000.