Biopharma venture capital fundraising declined from $8.1 billion in the first quarter of 2024 to $6.5 billion in the first three months of this year, headlined by a clutch of massive funding rounds.
Venture capital financing declined 20% year over year in the first quarter of 2025, with a few massive raises holding things together for the industry.
A new report from GlobalData on VC trends in the sector outlined the steep decline in fundraisings as investors continue to avoid risk. Financings declined from $8.1 billion in the first quarter of 2024 to $6.5 billion in the first three months of this year. This returns VC spending to the two-year downturn seen post-pandemic in 2022 and 2023, after a brief uptick in 2024, GlobalData noted.
There were 162 total VC investments in the pharma sector in the first quarter, GlobalData said. These raises tipped toward later-stage firms with clinical data.
“The higher deal values for late-stage firms underscores a distinct realignment of investor risk appetite—a trend observed since 2024,” Alison Labya, business fundamentals pharma analyst at GlobalData, said in a statement. “Amid the ongoing macroeconomic uncertainty, venture capitalists are favoring opportunities with clearer routes to near-term revenue and market access over longer-horizon development risks.”
Phase III companies had the highest median deal value for the first quarter with $62.5 million, a 39% increase compared to $45 million for the entirety of 2021. In 2024, though, these late-stage deals had a median of about $100 million.
This year’s first quarter numbers are influenced by some massive standout fundraises. Another report from J.P. Morgan found that 19 venture capital rounds raised $100 million or more in the period. The firm credited Isomorphic Labs, the Google AI drug discovery venture, with the largest fundraising of the quarter. Isomorphic’s $600 million fundraising was announced at the end of March. The company has boldly set out to “solve all diseases.”
Unsurprisingly, an obesity biotech had another of the largest VC rounds last quarter. Verdiva Bio debuted in early January with a massive $410 million in funds to start with. The company plans to develop next-generation oral and injectable obesity treatments, including an oral GLP-1 receptor antagonist that is in preparations for Phase II. Verdiva also has two earlier stage amylin programs.
VC darling Eikon Therapeutics, headed by a class of former Merck alums, was also among the top raise-earners, announcing a $350.7 million series D in February. The cash was to be spent on pushing lead candidate EIK1001 into a Phase III clinical trial. There could be more to come, too. Eikon said the February announcement was just the “initial closing.”
Eikon broke cover in 2021 with a $148 million series A to develop live-cell super-resolution microscopy for drug discovery. The company, which made BioSpace’s NextGen list of top startups to watch in 2022, has now raised $1.1 billion in total, some of which was used to purchase a clutch of assets to accelerate from discovery to the clinic.
Newer to the scene is cardiovascular-focused Kardigan, which launched in early January with a $300 million series A to find new treatments via a research platform and through acquisitions. The company is lead by former executives from MyoKardia, the biotech that was bought by Bristol Myers Squibb for $13.1 billion in October 2020.
Aviceda Therapeutics collected the fifth largest venture capital round in the first quarter, raising a series C worth $207.5 million. The company is developing immunomodulators for inflammatory diseases. The fundraise will be used to move lead asset AVD-104 into clinical trials for geographic atrophy.
