DURHAM, N.C., Feb. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Hatteras Venture Partners announced today the first closing of its third venture capital fund, Hatteras Venture Partners III, LP (HVP III). The Fund has secured commitments for $60 million to invest in seed and early-stage companies in biopharmaceuticals, medical devices, diagnostics and related opportunities in human medicine. The ultimate fund size is expected to be $100 million. HVP III may invest in opportunities throughout the country but will focus on forming and leading companies in the southeastern United States, where the level of National Institutes of Health- funded research is high but the availability of early-stage venture capital is limited.
For its third fund, Hatteras has recruited Robert Ingram, former CEO of GlaxoWellcome and vice chairman pharmaceuticals for GlaxoSmithKline, and Douglas Reed, M.D., a 13-year venture capital veteran, to join Hatteras as general partners and members of the Fund's Investment Committee.
"I am thrilled to join a great group of partners at Hatteras," said Ingram, who has served as an advisor to the firm. "We will work hard to catalyze the next wave of breakthrough improvements in medicine by commercializing products, based on the billions of dollars of basic research conducted at the outstanding universities in the Southeast."
"When you analyze the different regions of the country, you see significant federal and private research dollars flowing into laboratories in the Southeast," said HVP General Partner Clay Thorp. "At the same time, venture capital flows into southeastern companies are much lower than in California and Massachusetts. This capital gap represents a tremendous investment opportunity."
Hatteras Venture Partners was founded in 2000 by John Crumpler and Clay Thorp with the launch of its first venture capital fund, Hatteras Venture Partners I, a pre-seed fund that has generated top decile returns focused predominantly on company formation in the life sciences. In 2004, the firm added Ken Lee, former head of International Life Science at Ernst & Young, and Dana Fowlkes, M.D. Ph.D., a scientist and successful serial entrepreneur, and raised its second fund, Hatteras Venture Partners II, a later-stage fund invested through a partnership with HBM BioCapital.
About Hatteras Venture Partners:
Hatteras Venture Partners is a venture capital firm based in Research Triangle Park, N.C., with a focus on biopharmaceuticals, medical devices, diagnostics, and related opportunities in human medicine. With three funds, the firm has more than $100 million under management. The latest Hatteras fund, Hatteras Venture Partners III, will invest in seed and early-stage companies with a focus on the southeastern United States. For more information, go to: www.hatterasvp.com.
Hatteras Venture PartnersCONTACT: John C. Crumpler, General Partner of Hatteras Venture Partners,+1-919-484-0730, ext. 237
Web site: http://www.hatterasvp.com/
