About This Fund
Ascenta Capital is a New York-based venture capital firm founded in 2023 by Evan Rachlin, MD, and Lorence Kim, MD, two former Moderna executives who played pivotal roles in the company's transformation from a startup to a global vaccine leader. Rachlin served as Moderna's CFO from 2014 to 2020, raising $4 billion in capital and overseeing a 24-candidate development pipeline, while Kim was Head of Strategy at Moderna and later a Venture Partner at Third Rock Ventures. The firm closed its inaugural vehicle, Ascenta Capital Fund I, L.P., at $325 million in October 2025, making it one of the largest debut biotech VC funds raised by a newly formed manager. The fund is domiciled in Delaware and backed by a diverse institutional investor base spanning family offices, multi-family offices, endowments, foundations, and high-net-worth individuals.
Ascenta Capital Fund I pursues a focused thesis centered on development-stage, multi-medicine biotechnology companies conducting Phase 1 and Phase 2 clinical trials. The fund deploys $15–30 million per investment, leading or co-leading syndicates into platform biotech companies with multiple drug candidates simultaneously in clinical development. The firm is deliberately therapeutic-area agnostic, prioritizing companies with asymmetric upside through multi-asset platforms rather than single-program startups. Beyond capital, Ascenta provides strategic guidance, drug development expertise, and connections derived from its team's cumulative experience across globally successful biopharmaceutical companies — including Merck, Vertex, and Flagship Pioneering — and top-tier financial institutions.
As of the fund's final close, Ascenta Capital had deployed over $100 million across six portfolio companies: ADARx Pharmaceuticals (RNA therapeutics), Iambic Therapeutics (AI-driven oncology), Odyssey Therapeutics (oncology and immunology), Cardurion Pharma (cardiovascular disease), OrsoBio (metabolic diseases), and Alpha9 Oncology. These companies are collectively active in 14 clinical trials and advancing more than 40 pipeline programs. The firm's 14-person team — comprising eight investment professionals and three executive advisors — has collectively contributed to more than 30 FDA-approved medicines, providing the fund with deep operational credibility across drug development, regulatory strategy, and commercial execution.