Reference articles on history, science, culture and more
Encyclopedia

Alta Partners

American venture capital firm

Alta Partners is a venture capital firm based in San Francisco which invests primarily in biotechnology and life science companies.

Cofounder Guy Nohra later relocated in Barcelona, Spain, to cofound Alta Life Sciences in 2016.

01History

Dan Janney joined Alta as a partner in 1996, when the firm was founded; Pete Hudson and Bob More joined in 2017.

In 2000, the firm launched two VC funds, Alta California Partners III and Alta BioPharma Partners II. It raised its ninth fund, Alta Partners NextGen Fund I, in 2017. Two new healthcare VC funds were launched in 2004: Alta BioPharma Partners III and ACP IV.

In May 2022, the company filed a lawsuit against BRC Inc. (NYSE:BRCC), the surviving entity of a 2021 merger between SilverBox Capital and Black Rifle Coffee) in the Southern District of New York, which alleging a breach of contract, and seeking damages due to BRC's refusal to allow Alta to exercise warrants in 2022. The suit was settled in June 2025, with Alta paying BRC $1,000,000, and BRC issuing 2,300,100 shares of its Class A common stock to Alta.

02Investments

Notable investments have included Ellie Mae, Be Inc., Ilex Oncology, Connects Corp, The Medicines Co., Kite Pharmaceuticals, ZS Pharma, Esperion, Allakos Chemgenx, DeCode Calistoga, Aerie, Cymabay, Tyra Biosciences, DIspatchHealth and VIR Biotechnology.

Watch videos about Alta PartnersExplainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article Alta Partners, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

Fathomly is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Wikimedia Foundation. Spotted a problem? Tell us.