The top 100 venture investors in biotech
An annual ranking of the 100 most active venture investors in private biotech rounds, produced by Endpoints News with data from DealForma. Investors are ranked by the capital in new funding rounds they joined in the prior year, and the list is a common reference for biotech founders mapping the investor landscape.
- Reliability
- Grade A · 11/12
- Publisher
- Endpoints News
- Ranks
- Venture firms, Biotech and biopharma
- Editions
- 7 since 2019
- Method
- Data
- How items get in
- Compiled by the publisher
- Status
- Active
Editions
| Edition | Published | Top of the list | On record |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | February 26, 2026 | OrbiMed | 2 of 100 |
| 2025 | February 25, 2025 | RA Capital Management | 1 of 100 |
| 2024 | February 21, 2024 | Not recorded | At the publisher |
| 2023 | February 9, 2023 | Not recorded | At the publisher |
| 2022 | February 10, 2022 | Not recorded | At the publisher |
| 2020 | February 18, 2020 | Not recorded | 4 of 100 |
| 2019 | January 28, 2019 | Not recorded | At the publisher |
How the ranking works
DealForma (analyst Chris Dokomajilar) compiles and fact-checks the rankings from its biopharma deal database. The 2025 event page describes the list as identifying 'the leading 100 venture capital firms investing in biotech based on capital deployed in new funding rounds'; in practice the headline figure is the total size of rounds a firm participated in (OrbiMed's 2025 figure was '$5.9 billion'), because individual check sizes are rarely disclosed. The 2020 article noted it is 'impossible to say exactly how much they invested in total'.
The article also reports deal counts per investor. Weights and tie rules are not published in the free portion; the full list is behind Endpoints' registration or premium wall.
Ranked positions: Each item has a position (1, 2, 3), with ties allowed. Firms cannot apply or pay; DealForma compiles and fact-checks rankings from its deal database. The full article sits behind an Endpoints sign-up or premium wall, and ranked firms' partners appear as panelists on the companion webinar.
How far to trust it
Superscout grades every ranking on six criteria, each scored 0 to 2. The top 100 venture investors in biotech scores 11 of 12, grade A.
- Transparency 1/2
- Basis (capital in new rounds) is stated; full weights and rules are not public.
- Independence 2/2
- Census from DealForma data; no applications or fees.
- Evidence 2/2
- Deal database compiled and fact-checked.
- Stability 2/2
- Same producer pair and metric across editions found.
- Coverage 2/2
- 100 investors across the sector.
- Track record 2/2
- Seven editions found from 2019 to 2026.
History
Endpoints and DealForma have published the list each winter since at least January 2019 (2018 data), with editions found for 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026; a 2021 edition likely exists but was not located. RA Capital Management was the most ubiquitous investor in several recent editions; in the February 2026 edition OrbiMed moved to first place after more than doubling its deal activity to $5.9 billion, with RA Capital second. Since about 2022 each edition has been paired with a live webinar featuring partners from ranked firms.
How it is received
The list is widely referenced in biotech media and by DealForma itself. No attributable published criticism was found. A structural limitation, acknowledged in the 2020 article, is that the ranking reflects round sizes a firm joined rather than dollars it invested.
Strengths
- Specialist biotech deal data compiled and fact-checked by DealForma.
- Long run of annual editions since at least 2019.
- Covers 100 investors, wider than most sector top 10s.
- Includes crossover and corporate investors active in private rounds.
Weaknesses
- Full list is behind an Endpoints sign-up or premium wall.
- Ranks by total round size joined, not actual dollars invested, which favors participants in megarounds.
- Methodology details are not published in the free portion.
- Ranked firms' partners headline the companion webinar, a commercial tie.
Open questions
Facts not verified yet. They stay visible so they are not mistaken for settled facts.
- A February 2021 edition (2020 data) was not located.
- Whether 2019 is the first edition is unconfirmed.
- Leaders for the 2019, 2020 (by dollars), 2022, 2023 and 2024 editions are behind the paywall.
- Exact ranking metric (total round size joined vs estimated capital) is only summarized publicly.
Superscout describes The top 100 venture investors in biotech independently from the publisher’s own pages and outside coverage, linked below. The rankings belong to Endpoints News.
Sources and known limits
Last reviewed .
- OrbiMed jumps to number one on the top 100 list of biotech venture investors
- OrbiMed Jumps To Number One On The Top 100 List Of Biotech Venture Investors - DealForma
- The Top 100 Biotech VCs (Endpoints event page, Feb 25, 2025)
- Where the money is: The top 100 venture investors in biotech
- The top 100 venture players in biopharma today. Who's in? What's out?
- The top 100 venture investors in biopharma today. Who's staying at the deals table?
- The 2022 top 100 biopharma investors: A look back on boom times
- The top 100 biopharma venture investors at the megabillions deal table
- Republication of the 2020 Endpoints article (J Rich Capital)
- By the numbers for 2018: The top 100 venture players in biotech