In conjunction with our Q2 2024 Venture Financing Report, we sat down with Laura Tadvalkar of RA Capital to get her take on the state of venture capital investing.
Key insights from Laura Tadvalkar
On recent advancements toward human health: “We’re seeing the incredible impact of GLP-1 drugs not only for weight loss and diabetes, but across multiple disease areas, including cardiovascular, fibrosis, liver disease and even, potentially, neurodegeneration.”
On the outlook of later-stage private rounds: “Today’s late-stage private rounds might be the last round before IPO but are often intended to fund the company through one or more significant data catalysts, so investors are looking for lower valuations to make sure they get paid for taking data and market risk.”
On her approach to identifying promising founders and companies: “We always look for the ‘killer application’ that a technology is uniquely positioned to solve – and make sure that companies are funded to meaningful value inflection points, plus some buffer – because science takes time!”