Sapphire Energy’s unmatched scientific team is backed by an investment syndicate led by co-founding venture capital firm ARCH Venture Partners, and including The Wellcome Trust and Venrock, all with successful track records in building some of the world’s leading companies.
ARCH Venture Partners is a premier provider of seed and early stage capital for technology firms, with a special competence in co-founding and building technology firms from startup. ARCH invests primarily in companies co-founded with leading scientists and entrepreneurs, concentrating in innovations in life sciences, physical sciences, and information technology. ARCH enjoys special recognition as a leader in the successful commercialization of technologies developed at academic research institutions and national laboratories. The company manages seven funds totaling over $1.5 billion and has invested in the earliest venture capital rounds for more than 120 companies over 22 years. Portfolio companies where ARCH was a co-founding or early investor include Illumina, Aviron, Impinj, Xenoport, Alnylam, Ikaria, Microoptical Devices, New Era of Networks, Netbot, Trubion Pharmaceuticals, Adolor, Nanosys, Caliper Life Sciences, Ahura, Xtera, Array Biopharma, Everyday Learning Corporation, Nanophase Technologies, and deCode Genetics, among others.
The Wellcome Trust is the most diverse biomedical research charity in the world, spending around £650 million every year both in the UK and internationally to support and promote research that will improve the health of humans and animals. The Wellcome Trust funding supports work ranging from basic science to medical history, from projects delivering direct clinical benefits through to studies of bioethical issues.
The Wellcome Trust has been an independent charity for 70 years, during which time they have always supported excellent research, recognizing the need to provide long-term support, since most biomedical discoveries are incremental, building on past achievements. The work that they have funded has brought great benefits to human and animal health worldwide.
The mission of The Wellcome Trust is to foster and promote research with the aim of improving human and animal health. Wellcome Trust funding has supported a number of major successes including: a substantial contribution to the sequencing of the human genome, development of the antimalarial drug artemisinin, pioneering cognitive behavioral therapies for psychological disorders, establishing UK Biobank, and opening Wellcome Collection, a new £30 million cultural venue in central London that explores the relationship between medicine, life and art. The Wellcome Trust is committed to engaging the public with science and research and funds a range of educational programs and exhibitions.
www.wellcome.ac.uk
www.wellcomecollection.org
Cascade Investment, LLC, is an investment holding company owned by Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates.
Venrock is a premier venture capital firm with offices in Menlo Park, New York, Cambridge, MA, and Israel. Originally established as the venture capital arm of the Rockefeller family, Venrock continues a seven-decade tradition of partnering with entrepreneurs to establish successful, enduring companies. Having invested $1.9 billion in 405 companies resulting in over 120 IPOs over the past 39 years, Venrock’s investment returns place it among the top tier venture capital firms that have achieved consistently superior performance. With a primary focus on technology, healthcare, and energy, portfolio companies have included Adnexus Therapeutics, Apple Computer, Centocor, Check Point Software, DoubleClick, Gilead Sciences, Idec Pharmaceuticals, Illumina, Intel, Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Sirna Therapeutics, StrataCom, and Vontu.
Sapphire Energy is at the forefront of an entirely new industrial category with the potential to radically change America's energy landscape.
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