Civilization Ventures Announces $35M Second Fund

Serial Entrepreneur turned VC Shahram Seyedin-Noor announces Fund II after success of Fund I, which already had 2 exits
Civilization Ventures doubles down on its original thesis, investing in three core verticals: (1) genomics/diagnostics, (2) digital health/AI, (3) synthetic biology
Founder + General Partner Shahram sees innovation exploding across diagnostics and telemedicine in 2020

SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–$NVTA #VC—Civilization Ventures is announcing the close of its second fund following the successful investment of Fund I in 2017, where the firm had major portfolio exits with the public listing of gene therapy leader Rocket Pharma (NASDAQ: RCKT) and the acquisition of Singular Bio by Invitae, Inc. (NYSE: NVTA), a publicly traded company at the forefront of advanced medical genetics. Civilization Ventures will use its new capital to power the most innovative life science companies in the world at the forefront of genomics/diagnostics, synthetic biology and digital health/AI.

“We’re excited to announce our second fund to help visionary founders achieve their dreams and positively impact society,” said Shahram Seyedin-Noor, founder and General Partner of Civilization Ventures. “We’re still in the early stages of the health tech and biology revolutions.”

“Shahram is a rare breed among VCs,” said Sean Duffy, co-founder and CEO of Omada Health. “Not only does he have exemplary insights and instincts on markets, teams, and trends, but he carries the operational experience to guide entrepreneurs on how to drive outsized success.”

“Shahram is incredible at what he does. Not only has he connected me with the best VCs in the Valley, but he also connected me with one of our most important advisors, who has been instrumental in our commercialization,” said Oguzhan Atay (PhD), co-founder and CEO of BillionToOne. “Shahram has a unique ability to invest in the best companies at the earliest stages.”

Civilization Ventures was founded in 2017 by serial life sciences entrepreneur Shahram Seyedin-Noor to invest in transformative technologies across healthcare and biology. Prior to starting the fund, Shahram was co-founder, CEO and later Executive Chairman/CBO of Rgenix, a clinical-stage cancer therapeutics company, and CFO/VP of Corporate Development at NextBio, a genomics software company acquired by Illumina in 2013.