ALSA Ventures

About ALSA Ventures

ALSA Ventures is an independent international life sciences venture capital firm headquartered in London, United Kingdom, at 78 Pall Mall, London. The firm was founded in 2019 by Alek Safarian, a former pharmacist who previously founded and led the Sydney-based clinical contract research organisation Novotech. ALSA Ventures sits within the ALSA Holdings group structure and operates as an independent fund manager rather than as part of a larger institutional platform or corporate sponsor. The firm closed its inaugural fund, ALSA Ventures Fund I, at a first close of approximately USD 59 million on 21 September 2020, with an initial target of raising up to USD 150 million in aggregate capital. A second-generation vehicle, ALSA Ventures Fund II, is in planning with a stated tilt toward North American opportunities. Assets under management as of December 2024 are concentrated in Fund I and characterised in the low USD 50 to 80 million range deployed across preclinical and early-clinical biotech companies.

Investment thesis

ALSA Ventures pursues a thesis-led, science-first venture capital strategy concentrated on novel therapeutics at preclinical proof-of-concept and early clinical development stages. The firm targets breakthrough modalities and underserved therapeutic areas, with an explicit declared agnosticism on modality or indication so long as the underlying science meets a high bar for genuine differentiation. The disclosed portfolio shows concentration in oncology, cell and gene therapies, immunology, ophthalmology, women's health and rare-disease therapeutics. Geographic scope is primarily European with active investments documented in the United Kingdom and Belgium, while Fund II is expected to tilt deliberately toward US-based opportunities. The firm operates a deliberately bifurcated investment model that splits capital roughly equally between syndicated minority positions in established preclinical biotechs and majority-owned newco creation, where ALSA forms or co-forms portfolio companies around specific scientific assets in collaboration with academic founders. Fund I targets a final portfolio of 10 to 12 companies.

Recent activity

Among ALSA Ventures' disclosed portfolio investments, the firm acquired and relaunched Axovia Therapeutics in 2023, a gene-therapy biotech developing AAV-based programmes for ciliopathies including Bardet-Biedl Syndrome. The firm joined the Epsilogen Series B expansion in 2024, an oncology biotech developing IgE-based antibody therapeutics for solid tumours, and participated in the ReproNovo Series A in 2025, a biopharmaceutical company developing solutions in reproductive medicine and women's health. The firm previously formed Promatix in 2021, an oncology newco focused on next-generation cancer therapeutics. No realisations or exits had been publicly recorded by December 2024 given the early vintage of Fund I. Detailed buyer names and multiple data available on Pro at €29/month.