Two veteran biotech investors have reunited to form a new venture capital firm focusing on autoimmune diseases. Steven St. Peter, M.D., and Luke Evnin, Ph.D., launched Vie Ventures to funnel money toward biotechs raising series B and C rounds.
The new outfit is launching with a suite of notable non-profit collaborators, including the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation, Lupus Research Alliance, National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Scleroderma Research Foundation and Sjögren's Foundation, according to a July 9 release. The firm has also tapped the former CEO of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, Lou DeGennaro, Ph.D., to head up collaboration strategy as a senior advisor.
“We see a compelling opportunity to leverage our team’s decades of differentiated experience to serve as a bridge between disease-focused philanthropies and the for-profit world funding therapeutics," St. Peter said in the release. "This bridge is unique, and we believe it will enable us to make more informed investment decisions, be a value-added investment partner for our portfolio companies, and increase the probability they succeed."
St. Peter will serve as the firm’s managing director and Evnin as a senior advisor. The duo previously spent a decade together at MPM BioImpact (formerly MPM Capital), a Boston-based VC that has made notable investments in psychedelic and RNA companies in recent years.
St. Peter left MPM in 2012 and in 2019 became managing director of the T1D Fund, a venture fund that invests in drug development for type 1 diabetes. Evnin, for his part, has been the chairperson of the Scleroderma Research Foundation for more than 20 years.
The Vie founders also announced plans to donate a share of their own proceeds to form the new public charity Vie Ventures Foundation. The charity's mission is to “accelerate innovation in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of autoimmune and inflammatory diseases,” according to the release.
Several immune-focused biotechs have unveiled this year, including Ouro Medicines in January with $120 million, Hillstar Bio in March with $67 million and Merida Biosciences in April with $121 million.
One of the largest autoimmune fundraises of 2025 so far is Abcuro’s $200 million series C in February. The Sanofi-backed biotech is using the money to push its anti-KLRG1 antibody through a pivotal phase 2/3 muscle wasting disease trial.