RA Capital Management (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.
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Financial services |
| Founded | January 2002 |
| Founders | Richard 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$11.3 billion (March 2024) |
Number of employees | 130 (March 2024) |
| Website | www |
| Footnotes / references [1] | |
Background
editRA 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]
The firm was initially set up as hedge fund that invested in public companies although it would later invest in private companies as well. RA Capital has an in-house research group, named TechAtlas that creates its disease-specific maps.[2][4][5]
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.[4]
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.[4][6]
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.[4]
In 2019, the firm launched its first venture fund, RA Capital Nexus Fund I which raised $300 million.[7][5]
SEC fine
editIn 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.[4][8]
References
edit- ^ "Form ADV" (PDF). SEC.
- ^ a b "Investing in the Health Care Revolution". Institutional Investor. January 4, 2016. Retrieved May 19, 2023.
- ^ a b c Edelson, Steve (February 22, 2016). "BioCentury" (PDF). RA Capital.
- ^ a b c d e f Shari, Michael. "Stocks Picks From a Top Biotech Hedge Fund". online.barrons.com. Retrieved May 19, 2023.
- ^ a b "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 May 19, 2023.
- ^ Huckman, Mike (April 30, 2009). "The Sequenom Syndrome". CNBC. Retrieved May 19, 2023.
- ^ "RA Capital Closes $461 Million Investment Fund Aimed at Life Sciences Companies". BioSpace. Retrieved May 19, 2023.
- ^ Baert, Rick (September 16, 2014). "SEC settles with BlackRock, others over trading infractions". Pensions & Investments. Retrieved May 19, 2023.