Hey {{first_name|default:there}}, it’s Vadim 👋
A few weeks ago, I set out to answer what sounded like a simple question:
Which family offices are actually investing in biotech right now?
Not the ones that say they’re “interested” in healthcare and not ones that showed up on some “top family offices” list floating around on LinkedIn.
Which ones are writing real checks into life science companies, today?
I couldn’t find a good answer anywhere.
The data was scattered - across disclosed financings, press releases, half-updated family office websites, and social media posts.
And when I actually could find databases that appeared comprehensive, I quickly saw that they were built for wealth managers and not founders, and were priced accordingly behind paywalls.
So I started building the list myself.
What began as a quick thought experiment turned into 100+ family offices active in life science and 40+ disclosed rounds.
Along the way, some of my research confirmed what I’d been hearing in my own conversations. Other parts genuinely surprised me. And some of the most useful signal came from what information I couldn’t find at all.
But the biggest surprise was actually structural.
Family offices are typically referred to as “patient capital” – as the panacea that can bridge the “valley of death” we’ve been seeing in biotech over the past several years.
What I found was a lot more nuanced – and arguably, a lot more interesting, than the common narrative suggests.
So today, I’d like to share all of it here with you.
🧭 HERE’S WHAT WE’LL COVER:
The investigation - what I found, the tiers of family office capital, and what it means for founders
What changed - how family offices have grown up, and where the capital is being directed
The field guide - the five kinds of family office, how they behave, and how to approach them
Bonus Resources: my family office directory, free industry reports, and a lot more
Also, a fair warning: I wanted this to be genuinely in-depth, so today’s issue will run double the length of most of my issues. You may want to bookmark this to come back to during the week 🙂
Let’s dive in!
By the way, just a quick favor 🙏
I’m working on something to make fundraising easier for biotech founders, but before I build it, I’d love to better understand where you’re getting stuck.
If you’re currently raising, or expect to over the next 6–12 months, I would really appreciate your perspective!