RA Capital

Last updated
RA Capital Management, L.P.
Type Private
Industry Financial services
FoundedJanuary 2002;21 years ago (2002-01)
FoundersRichard Aldrich
Peter Kolchinsky
Headquarters Berkeley Building, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Key people
Peter Kolchinsky (Managing Partner)
Rajeev Shah (Managing Partner)
Products Hedge fund
Venture capital
Private equity
AUM US$ 9.65 billion (March 2023)
Number of employees
122 (March 2023)
Website www.racap.com
Footnotes /references
[1]

RA Capital is an American investment firm based in Boston. It is focused on making public and private investments in the Healthcare and Biotechnology industries.

Contents

Background

RA Capital was founded in January 2002 by Richard Aldrich and Peter Kolchinsky. Aldrich was the chief business officer Vertex Pharmaceuticals who left to set up his own company. He invited Kolchinsky, a PhD student at Harvard University to join him due his technical expertise. The firm's name comes from the initials of Richard Aldrich. [2] [3] [4] [5]

The firm was initially set up as hedge fund that invested in public companies although it would later invest in private companies as well. However it doesn't invest into companies that spend more than 20% of their equity capitalization on research and development expenses per year as it is consider too risky in a volatile business environment. RA Capital has an in-house research group, named TechAtlas that creates its disease-specific maps. [2] [5] [6]

One of the firm's earliest successful investments was its investment into Triangle Pharmaceuticals which Gilead Sciences acquired for $464 million in early 2003. [3]

Aldrich left RA Capital in 2009 to start Longwood Fund, a venture capital firm although he still remains an investor in RA Capital. [5]

In 2009, RA Capital assets fell by 35.3% due to its large investment in Sequenom which lost 90% of its market value after it admitted it had falsified data on its tests for Down syndrome treatment. As a result, the firm limited individual investments to 15% of the firm's assets. [5] [7]

The firm made one of its first private investments in 2010 when it participated in a $15 million series C round for T2 Biosystems. [3]

As of 2015, the firm has delivered an annualized return of 28.4% since its founding. [5]

In 2019, the firm launched its first venture fund, RA Capital Nexus Fund I which raised $300 million. [8] [6]

SEC fine

In September 2014, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced it had sanctioned nineteen firms that illegally participated in stock offerings less than five days after short selling the stock. RA Capital was one of the firms and agreed to pay the largest amount out of them with disgorgement of $2.65 million, interest of $73,000 and a $905,000 penalty. [5] [9]

Notable investments

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References

  1. "Form ADV" (PDF). SEC.
  2. 1 2 "Investing in the Health Care Revolution". Institutional Investor. 2016-01-04. Retrieved 2023-05-19.
  3. 1 2 3 Edelson, Steve (February 22, 2016). "BioCentury" (PDF). RA Capital.
  4. "A Scientist on the Dark Side". www.science.org. Retrieved 2023-05-19.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Shari, Michael. "Stocks Picks From a Top Biotech Hedge Fund". online.barrons.com. Retrieved 2023-05-19.
  6. 1 2 "Peter Kolchinsky and Raj Shah's RA Capital has $461M more to play with, after 'rapid' investment in the last 15 months". Endpoints News. Retrieved 2023-05-19.
  7. Huckman, Mike (2009-04-30). "The Sequenom Syndrome". www.cnbc.com. Retrieved 2023-05-19.
  8. "RA Capital Closes $461 Million Investment Fund Aimed at Life Sciences Companies". BioSpace. Retrieved 2023-05-19.
  9. Baert, Rick (2014-09-16). "SEC settles with BlackRock, others over trading infractions". Pensions & Investments. Retrieved 2023-05-19.