Goldman Sachs Asset Management today announced the final close of West Street Life Sciences I, representing the first fund in the firm’s Life Sciences Investing strategy. Life Sciences I closed above its fundraising target, with $650 million in equity commitments from a global, diverse group of institutional, strategic and high net worth investors and meaningful commitment from Sachs employees. The fundraise is one of the largest ever first-time private life sciences growth funds.
Fund is managed by the Life Sciences Investing Group at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, which was established in 2021 and is led by Amit Sinha. The investment professionals on the Life Sciences Investing team bring decades of experience investing in the sector and will leverage the expansive resources of the Goldman Sachs platform to source differentiated investments and partner with companies to enhance value creation. The investing team is complemented by an Advisory Board comprised of academics, clinicians, scientific experts, and entrepreneurs with average industry experience of more than 24 years.
strategy is focused on growth-oriented private equity investments in life sciences, specifically targeting early to mid-stage therapeutic companies with multi-asset portfolios in addition to life sciences tools and diagnostics companies. The fund aims to invest in and build the next generation of leading life sciences companies. Goldman Sachs Asset Management has identified several themes of fundamental innovation as well as structural shifts that we believe will drive significant growth in the coming decades. These themes include precision medicine, genetic medicine, cell therapy, immunotherapy, synthetic biology, and artificial intelligence.
Amit Sinha, head of Life Sciences Investing at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, said: “We are in a golden-era of innovation in the life sciences, where technological breakthroughs are creating new approaches to diagnosing and treating disease. We believe the current environment provides an attractive opportunity for investing in the next generation of leading life sciences companies. Through our global platform, we seek to be a capital provider of choice and help our companies realize their full potential.”
Marc Nachmann, global head of Asset & Wealth Management at Goldman Sachs, said: “Life sciences represents one of the most exciting areas in the private investing landscape, with advances in technology transforming healthcare at an unprecedented pace. We have a long history of partnering with companies in this space and look forward to bringing the full resources of Goldman Sachs to world-class management teams who are driving progress in the industry.”
Life Sciences I has already committed ~$90 million across 5 portfolio companies at the forefront of life sciences innovation: MOMA Therapeutics, Nested Therapeutics, TORL Biotherapeutics, Septerna and Rapport Therapeutics.
These investments span precision medicine, immunotherapy, and artificial intelligence in the areas of oncology, neurology and rare disease.