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About Blue Bear Ventures
Blue Bear Ventures is a venture capital firm founded in 2016. It is primarily based out of Berkeley, United States. As of Sep 2019, Blue Bear Ventures has invested in 21 companies. It primarily invests in Seed round in United States based startups. Its investments are spread across a wide range of sectors from Life Sciences to High Tech and HealthTech. Most recently it participated in the $***** Seed round of Unnatural Products Overall, Blue Bear Ventures portfolio has seen 1 unicorn and 2 acquisitions, namely Ayar Labs, Aluna and ANATherapeutics. A lot of funds co-invest with Blue Bear Ventures, with names like Artis Ventures sharing a substantial percentage of its portfolio. Blue Bear Ventures has team of 9 people including 4 partners.Key Metrics
Team Members
Portfolio Sectors
Portfolio Locations
Rounds of Entry
Seed
Portfolio Acquisitions
Portfolio Unicorns
Portfolio Soonicorns
Blue Bear Ventures' List of Top Investments
Blue Bear Ventures has a portfolio of 21 companies, one of which is a Unicorn. Their most notable investmentis in ParticellaTheir portfolio spans across and United States. They have invested in Life Sciences, High Tech, HealthTech and 11 other sectors, across stages such as Seed stage. Here is the list of top investments by Blue Bear Ventures:
1. Ayar Labs
Developer of optical interconnect solutions for artificial intelligence infrastructure applications. The company provides optical I/O chiplets and light sources for enhanced bandwidth and power efficiency. These solutions aim to improve the performance and scalability of AI and high-performance computing systems. The company's products are intended for use in data centers and other advanced technology applications.
Key facts about Ayar Labs
- Founded Year: 2015
- Location: San Jose (United States)
- Valuation: $*****
- Stage: Series E
- Total Funding till date: $1.02B
- Employee Count: 259 as on Sep 30, 2026
- Investors: Intel, Rising Tide Fund and 58 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Series E, Sep 10, 2026, $*****
- Highlight: Editors' Pick
2. Genedit
Developer of drug delivery system for genetic medicines. The company has developed a NanoGalaxy platform that contains non-viral, non-lipid, polymer nanoparticles to deliver genetic medicines to the needed tissue to treat disease.
Key facts about Genedit
- Founded Year: 2016
- Location: Berkeley (United States)
- Stage: Series B
- Total Funding till date: $93.5M
- Employee Count: 65 as on May 31, 2026
- Investors: SK, Lilly and 20 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Series B, Nov 20, 2024, $*****
- Highlight: Editors' Pick
3. Coreshell
Manufacturer of silicon battery anodes using metallurgical grade raw materials. This technology utilizes natural silicon to replace traditional graphite in battery production. The anode materials are designed for large scale implementation within energy storage and electric vehicle power systems. The process aims to reduce production costs while maintaining battery performance standards.
Key facts about Coreshell
- Founded Year: 2017
- Location: San Leandro (United States)
- Valuation: $*****
- Stage: Series C
- Total Funding till date: $88M
- Employee Count: 61 as on Aug 31, 2026
- Investors: Industry Ventures, Entrada Ventures and 21 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Grant (prize money), Aug 24, 2026, $*****
- Highlight: Editors' Pick
4. ImpriMed
Provider of precision medicines for veterinary cancer. The company offers different drug combinations suited for a certain cancer pet patient. The company biopsies the live cancer cells for drug responses before treatment. Based on these responses, the company uses its data-driven technology to help veterinary oncologists to fix a personalized medicinal regime for an individual.
Key facts about ImpriMed
- Founded Year: 2017
- Location: Palo Alto (United States)
- Stage: Series A
- Total Funding till date: $44.9M
- Employee Count: 46 as on Aug 31, 2026
- Investors: SK Telecom, StartX and 30 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Series A, Sep 18, 2026, $*****
- Highlight: Editors' Pick
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Developer of computational biology techniques platform to engineer peptides for undruggable targets. The company has an AI-enhanced chemistry platform that enables a new class of drugs by engineering passively permeable, macrocyclic peptides that access traditionally undruggable targets.
Key facts about Unnatural Products
- Founded Year: 2016
- Location: Santa Cruz (United States)
- Stage: Series B
- Total Funding till date: $83M
- Employee Count: 70 as on Aug 31, 2026
- Investors: Rising Tide Fund, Wing Venture Capital and 17 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Series B, Mar 16, 2026, $*****
- Highlight: Editors' Pick
Blue Bear Ventures' Year-on-Year Investment Trends
Its most recent first time investment was in Unnatural Products.Blue Bear Ventures' Investments by Stage
Blue Bear Ventures has made 2 investments in Seed stage with an average round size of $3.75M.Blue Bear Ventures' Investments by Sector
Blue Bear Ventures has a diverse portfolio, with companies operating in the Life Sciences, Enterprise Applications and HealthTech. Notably, it has invested in 18 Tech companies, 17 Enterprise (B2B) companies, 7 Software companies and at least 6 companies focusing on Tech hardware.Sector | No. of Investments |
|---|---|
Life Sciences | 2 |
Enterprise Applications | 1 |
HealthTech | 1 |
Note: We have considered here, only first round of investments
Blue Bear Ventures' Investments by Geography
Blue Bear Ventures has made most investments in United States (2).Blue Bear Ventures' recent investments
Blue Bear Ventures has not made any investment in 2026 so far.Here are the most recent investments by Blue Bear Ventures:
Filter this listDate | Company | Location | Round Details | Round Amount | Co-Investors |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Sep 17, 2019 | United States | Seed | 9333 | [+4] | |
Aug 08, 2018 | United States | Seed | 2785 | [+3] |
Unicorns in Blue Bear Ventures' Portfolio
Blue Bear Ventures has 1 unicorn in its portfolio - Ayar Labs. The most recent unicorn in their portfolio is Ayar Labs which became a unicorn in 2024, 1 years before Blue Bear Ventures first invested in it.Here is a list of unicorns in Blue Bear Ventures' portfolio:
Tracxn Score | Company | Short Description | Founded year | Sector | Location | Company Stage | First Investment/ Acquisition Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
71 | Developer of optical interconnect solutions for artificial intelligence infrastructure applications | 2015 | San Jose | Series E | cxyxwpw |
Acquired companies in Blue Bear Ventures' Portfolio
2 companies from Blue Bear Ventures' portfolio have been acquired. The most recent acquisition was Aluna in May 2025 by Huma for $*****.Here are Blue Bear Ventures' portfolio companies that got acquired most recently:
Company | Acquisition Date | First Invested on | First Round of Investment | Round Size |
|---|---|---|---|---|
May 16, 2025 | - | - | 2016 | |
Dec 31, 2020 | - | - | 8896 |
Team profile of Blue Bear Ventures
Blue Bear Ventures has a team of 9 members including 4 Partners, 1 Venture Partner and 1 Principal located in United States, United Kingdom and 1 more location. Blue Bear Ventures' team does not sit on the board of any company as of now.Here is a list of all team members in Blue Bear Ventures:
Name | Designation | Location | Board Memberships | Contact Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Partner | San Francisco | - | - | |
Partner | San Francisco | - | ||
Partner | Berkeley | - | ||
Partner | Kensington | - | - | |
Venture Partner | Toronto | - | - | |
Principal | London | - |
Co-investors of Blue Bear Ventures
Over the past 8 years, 19 investors have co-invested in Blue Bear Ventures's portfolio companies. This includes funds and angels.
- Invested before Blue Bear Ventures: IndieBio has invested before Blue Bear Ventures.
- Top Co-investors of Blue Bear Ventures: 9 investors entered a company along with Blue Bear Ventures. These include investors like Artis Ventures (1 company).
- Invested after Blue Bear Ventures: A total of 9 investors have invested in Blue Bear Ventures's portfolio after their investments. Top Investors include Merck Global Health Innovation Fund (1 company), First Spark Ventures (1 company) and The Venture Collective (1 company).
Recent News related to Blue Bear Ventures
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AI-Driven Drug Discovery Startup Unnatural Products Nabs $6MHIT Consultant•Sep 17, 2019•Artis Ventures, Unnatural Products, Abstract Ventures, Asset Management Ventures and 3 others
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Gastrointestinal Gene Therapy Biotech DNAlite Therapeutics Raises $1.5M in Seed FundingBusiness Wire•Aug 08, 2018•Particella, UC Berkeley, Blue Bear Ventures, SOSV and 3 others
