Decheng Capital, an investment firm that focuses on the life sciences and healthcare sectors, is raising $650 million for a new fund, Decheng Capital Global Life Sciences Fund IV, it said in a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Tuesday.

Decheng could not be reached for comments.

The Fund IV, if successfully closed, will be significantly larger than its predecessor fund Decheng Capital China Life Sciences USD Fund III, which targeted to raise up to $450 million, according to an SEC filing in May 2018.

The firm closed its Fund II at $250 million in 2015 and the Fund I in June 2013.

Founded in 2020, Decheng primarily invests in early-stage life science companies with revolutionary technologies and late-stage companies with a strong market presence. The firm’s website shows that it has over $1 billion in capital under management. Besides its headquarters in Menlo Park, California, the firm also has offices in Shanghai and New York.

Decheng enjoyed a handful of exits this year.

Merck & Co, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, announced in early November that it agreed to acquire VelosBio, a portfolio of Decheng, for $2.75 billion in cash to strengthen its cancer drug offerings.

Min Cui, founder and managing director of Decheng, told ChinaBio® Today in a November interview that Decheng was VelosBio’s biggest shareholder and backed the firm’s seed funding, as well as a $58 million Series A round in October 2018, and $137 million Series B round this July.

Everest Medicines, a Decheng-backed Chinese clinical-stage biopharmaceutical firm, raised almost HK$3.5 billion ($451 million) in an initial public offering (IPO) in Hong Kong in October. Decheng had invested in the firm’s $260 million Series C2 round in June, which was one of the two tranches of Everest Medicines’ $310 million Series C round, or its pre-IPO round.

US biotech firm Grail, also a portfolio of Decheng, was acquired by genetic sequencing giant Illumina Inc for $8 billion in September. Grail, whose list of high-profile investors include Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, is developing a blood test that targets to detect multiple cancers far earlier than is now possible. Decheng had also invested in clinical-stage biotech firm Checkmate Pharmaceuticals, which raised $75 million in a Nasdaq IPO in August; as well as ReadCoor, a Boston-based foundational In Situ technologies developer that was acquired by 10x Genomics for cash and stock consideration of $350 million in October.

Contact editor Marcus Ryder (marcusryder@caixin.com)

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