Venture Capital · Profile from Venture Capital Research Companion
RA Capital Management, L.P.
The Boston biotech specialist that started as a small public-equity fund seeded by Vertex co-founder Richard Aldrich and, under Peter Kolchinsky and Rajeev Shah, became one of the largest "crossover" investors in life sciences, using a research-heavy, evergreen hedge-fund structure alongside dedicated private (Nexus) funds to finance companies from formation through IPO and beyond.
At a glance
- Founded
- 2001–02, Boston (Aldrich seeded the vehicle in 2001–02; formal fund structure for outside capital established in 2004)
- Founders
- Richard Aldrich (Vertex Pharmaceuticals co-founder; "RA" are his initials) and Peter Kolchinsky (then a Harvard virology PhD student)
- Headquarters
- Berkeley Building, 200 Berkeley Street, Boston, Massachusetts
- Ownership / structure
- Private partnership (RA Capital Management, L.P.); flagship evergreen RA Capital Healthcare Fund (public and private); closed-end private funds (RA Capital Nexus Fund I–III); incubation (Carnot, RAVen); Planetary Health strategy
- Leadership (2026)
- Peter Kolchinsky and Rajeev (Raj) Shah, managing partners (Shah also CIO); a broader partner group (verify current roster)
- AUM / capital raised
- ~$12.6bn (March 2025, reported); ~$9bn around 2021–22 (reported); private funds: Nexus I ~$300m+ (2019), Nexus II $461m (2020), Nexus III $880m (2021)
- Stage focus
- Public biotech equities (long-biased), crossover/pre-IPO rounds, Series A–C, and company formation; therapeutics first, plus diagnostics, devices, tools and (from 2023) planetary health
- Signature investments
- Triangle Pharmaceuticals (early public win), T2 Biosystems (first private deal), Eidos Therapeutics, Nimbus Therapeutics, Aiolos Bio, Arvinas; instructive losses: Sequenom (2009), T2 Biosystems (post-IPO decline)
8 deals and moves analysed
Each one gets a full strategy file in the companion: context, the decision, the financing, what happened, and the lesson.
2002
Triangle Pharmaceuticals
Public Equity Position
2007
Avigen
Public Equity Position
2008
Sequenom
Public Equity Position
2010
T2 Biosystems
Series C
2018
Eidos Therapeutics
Series B
2020
Nimbus Therapeutics
Private Growth Round
2023
Aiolos Bio
Series A
2023
Arvinas
PIPE