RA Capital

RA Capital Management is a multi-stage investment manager dedicated to company formation and evidence-based investing in healthcare and life science companies developing drugs, medical devices, diagnostics, services, and research tools. The firm’s portfolio of private and public companies spans the globe and most therapeutic areas across all stages from discovery through commercialization. We are committed to fostering diversity at RA, in our portfolio companies, and in the broader biotech community.

Who We Are

Our flexible strategy allows us to provide seed funding to startups and lead private, IPO, and follow-on financings for our portfolio companies, thereby driving value creation from idea inception through commercialization.

At RA Capital’s core is its TechAtlas research division, a scientifically trained team that maps out competitive landscapes to put data into context, identify breakthroughs, and originate conviction in new ideas. TechAtlas provides market intelligence and, technical diligence, and other resources to both our internal Investment Team and our portfolio companies. The team’s understanding of industry best practices is derived from an extensive collection of case studies documenting the impact of clinical trial design, partnership structures, and public market dynamics.

Beyond Capital

RA Capital offers its portfolio companies much more than capital to help them grow, make decisions, and succeed. We:

• Serve on boards of private and public companies and host board meetings at our offices
• Help recruit executives and board members
• Provide access to TechAtlas maps and expertise
• Prioritize indications and targets based on their feasibility and value given current scientific knowledge, unmet needs, and emerging competition
• Monitor for new applications and complementary technologies
• Create custom maps that lay out a company’s competition and unrealized opportunities
• Provide extra analytical bandwidth across our large team (e.g., analyze literature, provide insights from scientific and investor conferences)
• Assist with grant writing and preparation of scientific publications
• Interview clinicians and key opinion leaders (KOLs)
• Host advisory boards
• Facilitate partnership or acquisition discussions with larger companies
• Help design (or redesign) a corporate slide deck or website, leveraging in-house writing and graphics teams
• Make introductions to other investors
• Anchor subsequent financings and set the pace for closing
• Help select bankers for financings and M&A

We also provide a growing suite of Innovator Resources to the broader ecosystem, with more hands-on support for our portfolio companies, management teams, and boards. These resources include:

• a comprehensive reference guide to conducting successful biotech board meetings;
• a data-driven guide to how to conduct a logical IPO based on first principles of price discovery and shareholder alignment; and
• a roadmap for how to convey your company’s unique Equity Value Proposition to employees (because they are also your investors).

We’re available to coach you through a pitch, provide feedback on a deck, and partner with you to refine strategy or messaging at every stage.

Additionally, we helped to found and continue to support No Patient Left Behind, a non-profit dedicated to promoting affordability of today’s medicines and the development of better ones. More specifically, NPLB advocates for insurance reforms that would allow all patients to afford the treatments they need, draws attention to the full societal value of all medicines and the merits of ensuring that all drugs go generic without delay, and educates lawmakers and the public about the workings of the biomedical ecosystem to protect it against misguided policies.

Translation & Hunting

RA Capital offers Executive-In-Residence (EIR) and venture partner programs for experienced professionals seeking thought partners.

We welcome experienced drug hunters searching for technologies/candidates and looking to start new companies to collaborate with our team, explore the capabilities of our in-house incubator, and take advantage of the breadth and depth of our TechAtlas platform.

RAVen, our in-house incubator, provides a collaborative platform for drug hunters and company builders to explore both the novel and the re-imagined. Discoveries and improvements in chemistry, molecular and cellular biology, and materials science create novel capabilities that may address unsolved challenges. Our understanding of fundamental biology is constantly evolving, revealing new applications for existing technologies and partially-developed drug candidates. Programs we consider worthwhile may form the basis for a new venture.

We believe that when a business proposition is framed correctly, the capital markets have adequate resources and understanding to fund proper experimental design and solution development without forcing companies to cut corners. Furthermore, we have collaborated extensively with other funds that share our philosophy to enable ambitious and capital-intensive endeavors.

Our Values

We at RA Capital are introspective and deliberate about the ways in which we engage with each other and those outside our firm. Our values represent a set of clear parameters by which we create working relationships founded on trust, collaboration, diligence, and integrity.

• We originate conviction. We do not borrow it from others.
• We expect and strive to inspire the best in everyone.
• We embrace the unfamiliar.
• We do not let convention stand in the way of what is right.
• We learn collaboratively.
• We have a bias for action.
• We are persistently curious and humbled by what is left to learn.
• We are data-driven and challenge assumptions.
• We preserve the ability to change our mind.
• We admit our mistakes and share lessons learned.
• We address the elephant in the room.
• We value our relationships and are positive, respectful, and open-minded.
• We take fun seriously.