Breakout Ventures

Last updated
Breakout Ventures
Founded2016
Headquarters38 Mesa St.,
San Francisco, CA
Website breakout.vc

Breakout Ventures is a privately held venture capital firm founded in 2016. The firm was founded out of Breakout Labs, a program of the Thiel Foundation (a philanthropic organization created by Peter Thiel). [1] The firm is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

Contents

Breakout Ventures invests in early-stage companies across technology, biology, and chemistry sectors to build solutions for human health and sustainability. The firm supports science-driven companies moving with urgency throughout their entire life cycle, from seed to scale. [2]

History

Breakout Labs was launched in November 2011. [3] Breakout Labs issued convertible grants [4] for early-stage commercialization of scientific research that was considered too speculative or long-term to interest the for-profit sector (such as angel investors and venture capitalists) but may have been unsuitable for traditional sources of funding for scientific research due to its radical or offbeat nature. [5] Grants were made through a competitive application and selection process. [6]

Breakout Labs announced its first batch of grantees on April 17, 2012, [7] its second batch of grantees on August 15, 2012, [8] and its third batch of grantees in April 2013. [9]

In 2016, Breakout Ventures was founded as a separate entity to provide traditional venture capital investments in science-driven companies, utilizing the Breakout Labs grant program as a way to identify investment opportunities [10]

In 2017, Breakout Ventures closed its debut fund was closed with US$60.1 million in commitments. [11]

In 2021, Breakout Labs formerly closed, having provided 50 science focused grants in the program’s 10 year span. [12]

In December 2021, Breakout Venture's second fund was oversubscribed with US$112.5 million in commitments. [13]

Portfolio

The firm focuses on Series-A and Series-B stage science-driven companies. Its financial partners include Founders Fund, Formation 8, OATV, Lux Capital, Khosla Ventures among others. [14] Some of its recent investments include Noetik (cancer treatment), [15] Cytovale (medical diagnostics), [16] Passkey Therapeutics (synergistic multifunctional therapeutics), [17] Corpernic Catalysts (catalysts for ammonia production), [18] EnPlusOne Biosciences (RNA therapeutics), [19] Phantom Neuro (neurotechnology). [20]

References

  1. ↑ Loizos, Connie (2017-09-14). "Breakout Ventures, spun out of Peter Thiel's Breakout Labs, has closed its debut fund with $60M". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2024-11-23.
  2. ↑ "Homepage". www.breakout.vc. Retrieved 2025-10-30.
  3. ↑ "Thiel Foundation's Breakout Labs Announces Newest Grants at the Intersection of Biology and Advanced Technologies | Fierce Biotech". www.fiercebiotech.com. 15 August 2012. Retrieved 27 July 2025.
  4. ↑ Parthasarathy, Hemai; Fishburne, Lindy (2015). "Philanthropy's role in translating scientific innovation". Nature Biotechnology. 33 (10): 1022–1025. doi: 10.1038/nbt.3369 . ISSN   1087-0156.
  5. ↑ "About Us page on Breakout Labs". Archived from the original on 2012-02-27. Retrieved 2012-06-08.
  6. ↑ "FAQs page on Breakout Labs". Archived from the original on 2012-02-27. Retrieved 2012-06-08.
  7. ↑ "Breakout Labs Announces First Grantees". Breakout Labs. 2012-04-17. Archived from the original on 2012-06-16. Retrieved 2012-06-08.
  8. ↑ "Thiel Foundation's Breakout Labs Announces Newest Grants at the Intersection of Biology and Advanced Technologies". Breakout Labs. 2012-08-15. Archived from the original on 2012-10-13. Retrieved 2012-08-15.
  9. ↑ Cutler, Kim-Mai (2013-04-17). "Peter Thiel's Breakout Labs Funds "Nanostraws" And A Siri-Like Natural Language Processing Startup". TechCrunch . Retrieved 2013-04-17.
  10. ↑ "Breakout Ventures Announces Close of $112.5M Fund II". 9 December 2021. Retrieved 27 July 2025.
  11. ↑ Loizos, Connie (14 September 2017). "Breakout Ventures, spun out of Peter Thiel's Breakout Labs, has closed its debut fund with $60M". TechCrunch. Retrieved 27 July 2025.
  12. ↑ "Peter Thiel's 'audacious' early-stage science Breakout Labs fund is winding down". www.bizjournals.com. Retrieved 2024-02-19.
  13. ↑ "Breakout Ventures closes USD112.5m Fund II - Private Equity Wire". 10 December 2021. Retrieved 27 July 2025.
  14. ↑ "Breakout Labs looking for robots that can change the world". Robohub. Retrieved 27 July 2025.
  15. ↑ Dorbian, Iris (29 August 2024). "Biotech firm Noetik fetches $40m Series A". Venture Capital Journal. Retrieved 27 July 2025.
  16. ↑ "Cytovale Completes $100 Million Series D Funding to Accelerate Commercial Expansion of its Rapid Sepsis Solution". www.prnewswire.com. 10 October 2024. Retrieved 27 July 2025.
  17. ↑ "Passkey Therapeutics Raises $20M in Funding". FinSMEs. 22 October 2024. Retrieved 27 July 2025.
  18. ↑ "Copernic Catalysts Closes $8M Seed Prime Led by Breakout Ventures to Scale Its Transformational Catalyst for Sustainable Ammonia Production". 12 November 2024. Retrieved 27 July 2025.
  19. ↑ Bluemner, Paul (21 February 2025). "EnPlusOne Biosciences Raises $10M Financing". citybiz. Retrieved 27 July 2025.
  20. ↑ Lunden, Ingrid (15 April 2025). "Phantom Neuro grabs $19M to help amputees put their phantom limbs to use". TechCrunch.
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