Samsung to invest $52 mn in US biotech VC Flagship Pioneering

Samsung C&T Corp., its bio units Samsung Biologics Co. and Samsung Bioepis Co. and Samsung Venture Investment Corp. have committed a combined 72 billion won ($52.2 million) to US venture capital firm Flagship Pioneering Inc.’s fund to ramp up investment in global biotechs with innovative technologies, the construction and trading affiliate of Samsung Group said on Thursday.  

Dubbed Flagship Pioneering Fund VIII, the $2.6 billion investment vehicle will focus on the development of new transformative biomedical platforms using novel tools such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, Samsung C&T said.

The Samsung Group affiliates have committed to the injection via their second life science fund, which closed at 72 billion won last year.

Through the investment, they will gain access to information on companies founded by the Flagship Pioneering fund and consider additional investment in the firms, Samsung C&T added.

“Samsung C&T stepped into the life sciences industry by investing in biologics contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) business in 2011,” said Kim Jay-woo, executive vice president of Samsung C&T.

“Samsung C&T, a major shareholder of Samsung Biologics, which has Samsung Bioepis as a 100% owned subsidiary, has chosen bio and healthcare areas as a sustainable growth engine and the investment in the Flagship Pioneering Fund VIII perfectly aligns with our mid-term growth strategy,” Kim added.

Flagship Pioneering has founded more than 100 biotechs including Moderna Inc., a developer of COVID-19 vaccine, since its inception in 2000.

The Massachusetts-based VC firm has listed 25 companies since 2013, including neurodegenerative diseases-focused Denali Therapeutics and anticancer drug developer Foghorn Therapeutics on the Nasdaq, respectively in 2017 and 2020.

The Samsung affiliates’ commitment follows their $150 million investment, via the first life science fund, in Flagship Pioneering’s portfolio company Senda Biosciences Inc. in August 2022.

In January this year, Samsung C&T signed a non-binding agreement with the US VC firm to use the second life science fund for additional investments to translate promising basic science research into practical use, cutting-edge technologies for biomedical platforms and clinical trial infrastructure.

Write to Jeong Min Nam at peux@hankyung.com

Jihyun Kim edited this article.