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Mar 9, 2026
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Breakout Ventures Closes $114 Million Fund to Support Science-Driven Technology Startups
NewDecoded
4 min read
Image by Breakout
San Francisco-based Breakout Ventures announced the close of its Fund III on March 10, 2026, securing $114 million in total commitments. This new vehicle brings the firm's total assets under management to over $230 million as they continue to back seed-stage startups. The fund focuses on founders working at the intersection of biology, chemistry, and advanced computing to create category-defining companies.
The investment thesis for this third fund is strictly centered on the application of artificial intelligence to scientific discovery. Rather than investing in general AI tools, the firm targets companies that use AI to alter the cost curves of drug discovery and materials development. Individual investment commitments are expected to range from $500,000 to $5 million per company.
Breakout Ventures has already begun deploying the capital into promising new ventures. Early investments include Reach Industries, which builds visual intelligence for regulated environments, and a stealth startup focused on small-molecule drug discovery. These selections highlight the firm's focus on deep technical depth and commercial fluency among founding teams.
The firm has a strong historical track record of identifying scientific inflection points before the broader market. Recent successes include the $400 million acquisition of portfolio company Surf Bio by Halozyme Therapeutics in January 2026. Another portfolio company, Noetik, recently secured a $50 million licensing deal with GSK for its cancer research foundation models.
Managing Partners Lindy Fishburne and Julia Moore founded the firm in 2016 following their work with the Thiel Foundation's Breakout Labs. The team has since expanded to include partners specializing in diagnostics and the transition from scientist to founder. Their conviction from day one approach prioritizes founders who translate academic breakthroughs into scalable enterprises.
Institutional investors showed strong support for the new fund, including returns from Cortes Capital and The Kraft Group. New international limited partners like JIMCO and the Korea Omega Investment Corporation also joined the round. This global interest validates the firm's decade-long commitment to scaling scientific innovation at the frontier.
Current portfolio companies like Twelve and Cytovale continue to demonstrate the firm's impact on human health and sustainability. Twelve focuses on transforming carbon dioxide emissions into useful chemicals while Cytovale provides AI-enabled diagnostics for sepsis. These examples reflect the firm's mission to power the future through science-driven technology.
The closing of Fund III by Breakout Ventures signals a maturing market for tech-bio where the skepticism of early-stage science investing has been replaced by a hunt for massive, AI-accelerated returns. By doubling down on the intersection of deep science and artificial intelligence, the firm is moving beyond the era of digital tools and into the era of digital discovery. This shift suggests that the most valuable AI applications are no longer found in consumer interfaces but in the ability to decode complex biological and chemical datasets. As demonstrated by recent high-profile exits and licensing deals, the industry is witnessing a structural change where scientific breakthroughs are reaching commercial viability faster than ever before.
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