Samsara BioCapital

Samsara BioCapital Research

Investment Thesis

Samsara BioCapital is a Palo Alto-based life sciences investment firm founded in 2016 by Srini Akkaraju, MD, PhD, focused exclusively on "investing to create transformative therapeutics for patients." The name draws on the Sanskrit concept of the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth, which the firm uses as a metaphor for its approach to portfolio construction: continuously seeding new breakthrough science while supporting companies through their full lifecycle. The firm explicitly states it "actively rejects the philosophy of exiting as quickly as possible," instead providing capital across the full risk cycle of a company, from private formation through and beyond an eventual IPO. Decisions are grounded in scientific rigor, applying deep diligence from a team composed largely of scientists, physicians, and drug developers with a combined 500+ years of experience.

Sector Focus

Samsara invests almost exclusively in biopharmaceuticals and therapeutics, with a portfolio spanning oncology, immunology, neuroscience, cardiometabolic disease, gastrointestinal disease, gene therapy, ophthalmology, and rare/orphan disease. A meaningful minority of the portfolio sits in life-sciences tools and diagnostics (proteomics, single-cell tools, liquid biopsy) rather than therapeutics directly, including Alamar Biosciences, Delfi Diagnostics, and Genalyte. The firm does not appear to invest outside life sciences/healthcare.

Stage Focus

Samsara is a full-lifecycle life sciences investor. External aggregator data describes it as primarily active at Series B, but the firm's own portfolio and recent activity show meaningful participation from Series A launches (Excellergy, Link Cell Therapies) through late-stage private rounds and continued public-market ownership post-IPO. The firm also runs a dedicated opportunity fund (reported target of ~$200M as of late 2025) explicitly built to continue backing winners through later, larger rounds and public offerings.

Check Size

Check size is not disclosed on the firm's website. Recent rounds it has participated in or co-led range from roughly $52M (Alpheus Medical Series B) to $107M (EpiBiologics Series B), consistent with a firm writing meaningful checks into syndicated institutional biotech rounds rather than a small-check seed investor.

Lead Tendency

Samsara shows a mixed lead/follow pattern. It has led or co-led several rounds (Alpheus Medical Series B with HealthQuest Capital; Excellergy Series A alongside Red Tree Venture Capital and Decheng Capital), while in other recent deals it participates as one of several syndicate investors behind a larger corporate or specialist lead (J&J Innovation/JJDC leading Link Cell Therapies and EpiBiologics; The Column Group leading Nura Bio's Series B).

Recent Activity

Samsara has been active through 2025 and into 2026, consistent with an actively-deploying firm:

• June 2026: Participated in Nura Bio's $73.8M Series B (led by The Column Group) to advance SARM1 inhibitors for ALS and other neurodegenerative conditions.
• January 2026: Joined EpiBiologics' $107M Series B, co-led by GV and J&J Innovation, backing bispecific antibody protein degraders in oncology; Samsara partner Mitchell Mutz joined as a board observer.
• December 2025: Participated as a founding investor in Link Cell Therapies' $60M Series A launch (led by J&J Innovation), backing logic-gated CAR-T therapies for solid and liquid tumors.
• October 2025: Led Excellergy's $70M Series A alongside Red Tree Venture Capital and Decheng Capital, backing a new class of allergy therapeutics.
• September 2025: Portfolio company Respira Therapeutics entered an option agreement with Gossamer Bio granting Gossamer the right to acquire Respira and its lead pulmonary hypertension candidate, RT234.
• May 2025: Co-led Alpheus Medical's $52M Series B with HealthQuest Capital to advance an ultrasound-activated glioblastoma therapy.

Portfolio Highlights

The portfolio (75+ companies visible on the firm's public portfolio page) includes a dense cluster of biotech IPOs and several notable acquisitions:

• Notable exits: Chinook Therapeutics (acquired by Novartis, 2023, ~$3.5B), Iveric Bio (acquired by Astellas, 2023), RayzeBio (acquired by Bristol Myers Squibb, 2023), Miro Bio (acquired by Gilead, 2022), Decibel Therapeutics (acquired by Regeneron, 2023), Fluent Biosciences (acquired by Illumina, 2024), Forma Therapeutics (acquired by Novo Nordisk, 2022), Intercept Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Alfasigma, 2023).
• Notable active/public names: Arcellx, Recursion Pharmaceuticals-adjacent oncology and immunology names, Scholar Rock, Sutro BioPharma, Prime Medicine, Janux Therapeutics, Nkarta, CARGO Therapeutics, Alumis, Bolt Biotherapeutics, Contineum Therapeutics, LENZ Therapeutics.
• Recent private launches: Cold Start Therapeutics, Ottimo, Epibiologics, Link Cell Therapies, Enlaza Therapeutics, PsiThera.

Team

Samsara's investment team is unusually deep in scientific and clinical credentials, reflecting the firm's diligence-heavy model:

• Srini Akkaraju, MD, PhD — Founder & Managing Partner. Formerly General Partner at Sofinnova Ventures and Managing Director at New Leaf Venture Partners; earlier business development roles at Genentech and J.P. Morgan Partners. MD/PhD in Immunology from Stanford.
• Mike Dybbs, PhD — Partner. Formerly at New Leaf Venture Partners and Boston Consulting Group (healthcare practice). PhD in molecular biology from UC Berkeley.
• Abe Bassan — Partner. Formerly Director of Program Biology at Revolution Medicines, project manager at bluebird bio, and Associate at Third Rock Ventures.
• Mitchell Mutz, PhD — Senior Principal. Formerly Entrepreneur Partner at Vivo Capital and Senior Investment Director at Roche Venture Fund; co-founder and CSO of Amplyx Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Pfizer).
• Matt Eckler, PhD — Principal, Public Investing. Prior public-markets investing roles at ArrowMark Partners, GMT Capital, and RBC Capital Markets.
• Jim P. Edwards, PhD — Venture Partner. 22 years at Janssen R&D, most recently as VP and Global Head of In Silico Discovery & External Innovation.
• Eric Dobmeier, JD — Venture Partner. Former President and CEO of Chinook Therapeutics (acquired by Novartis for $3.5B) and of Silverback Therapeutics; 15+ years at Seagen.
• Keith Gottesdiener, MD — Venture Partner. Former President and CEO of Prime Medicine and of Rhythm Pharmaceuticals; 16 years at Merck Research Laboratories.
• John Orwin — Venture Partner. CEO of Atreca; former SVP of the BioOncology Business Unit at Genentech.
• Dan Spiegelman — Venture Partner. Former CFO of BioMarin Pharmaceutical and of CV Therapeutics; former Treasurer at Genentech.

The firm also maintains a large bench of specialist Venture Partners covering regulatory, business development, and therapeutic-area expertise, plus a dedicated operations, finance, and investor relations team led by Reena Jashnani-Slusarz (Interim COO, formerly GC/CCO of Paradigm) and Liz Grace (Head of IR & Marketing, formerly Redmile Group).

Decision Process

Samsara operates as an institutional partnership with a defined investment team (Founder/Managing Partner, Partners, Senior Principal, Principal) supported by a large Venture Partner network for domain expertise. There is no public disclosure of a solo-GP or investment-committee structure, but the depth and seniority of the partner bench is consistent with a partnership-style decision process.

Founder Preferences

The firm's culture page emphasizes wanting founders who share an "aligned vision within a setting of transparency and close collaboration," with a strong preference for teams pursuing significant unmet medical need. Given the makeup of the investment and venture-partner team (nearly all MDs/PhDs and former biopharma operators), Samsara is best suited to scientifically rigorous, data-driven founding teams rather than generalist operators.

Geographic Focus

Primarily United States-based life sciences companies (concentrated in the Bay Area and broader biotech hubs), with selective exposure to European public biotech names in the portfolio (e.g., Abivax SA and Inventiva, both France-listed), likely reflecting public-market/opportunity-fund positions rather than primary geographic thesis.