OS Fund

OS Fund
Private
Founded 2014
Founder Bryan Johnson
Headquarters New York City, San Francisco
Products Venture capital
Website OSFund.co

OS Fund is an American venture capital fund that invests in early-stage science and technology companies.[1] It was founded by Bryan Johnson in 2014.[2]

Firm

Johnson created OS Fund in October 2014, a year after he sold Braintree, a payments company he founded in 2007, to eBay for $800 million.[3] Johnson launched the OS Fund with $100 million of his personal capital.[4]

The fund draws its name from the acronym for operating system (OS), the software that underlies the basic functions of computers and provides a foundation for other applications. Johnson, who has said “everything in life has an operating system,” said the OS Fund will invest in companies challenging traditional approaches to medicine, healthcare, transportation, life sciences, and other areas.[5]

In September 2015, OS Fund published the methodology it uses to evaluate investments in the field of synthetic biology. Johnson said the fund publicly released the "playbook" on its website to encourage others to invest in emerging sciences.[6]

Johnson is the fund’s general partner. Jeff Klunzinger, formerly the chief financial officer of West Family Investments, is the fund’s managing director.[7]

Origins

The impetus for OS Fund came after Johnson spent two years living in impoverished Ecuadorian communities. After returning to the U.S. at 21, Johnson said he wanted to build a company, retire by 30 and devote himself to improving the lives of others.[3][8]

Johnson began angel investing before selling Braintree, and then increased his investment activity afterward.[8]

Johnson has said he developed the fund in response to a pullback in federal support of research and development[9] and a general reluctance by more traditional venture capital firms to invest in science-based, high-risk investments that may lead to disruptive change.[10] He also has said he was motivated by a belief that this is a unique time in history: “With new tools such as 3D printing, genomics, machine intelligence, software, synthetic biology and others, we can now make in days, weeks or months things that previous innovators couldn’t possibly create in a lifetime.”[5]

Investments

OS Fund focuses on companies in the following sectors:

  • Space, Aerospace & Physics
  • Health & Life Sciences
  • Infrastructure/Transportation
  • Machine Intelligence

The firm invests primarily in early-stage companies that have either working products or prototypes and clear paths to commercialization.[11]

At its launch, OS Fund had invested $15 million in seven startups, including:

  • Human Longevity Inc., a company founded by geneticist J. Craig Venter that is seeking to extend the human lifespan
  • Synthetic Genomics, also co-founded by Venter, which is using synthetic biology in energy, health, medicine and food
  • Planetary Resources, which is looking for ways to mine asteroids for precious metals and water
  • Vicarious, an artificial intelligence company founded by Scott Phoenix and Dileep George
  • Matternet, a maker of autonomous vehicles for delivering goods to emerging markets and developing nations.[12]

Other OS Fund investments include:

  • Atomwise, a San Francisco-based drug-discovery startup that uses artificial intelligence to seek new medicines.[13]
  • Hampton Creek, a San Francisco-based food technology company developing plant-based food ingredients.[14]
  • Ginkgo Bioworks, a Boston-based biotechnology company that engineers bacteria to create ingredients for food and other products, and is working in other areas such as combating antibiotic resistance and capturing carbon.[15][16][17]

References

  1. ↑ "OS Fund LLC: Private Company Information". Bloomberg. Retrieved 8 June 2015.
  2. ↑ "Bryan Johnson-Founder at OS Fund". CrunchBase. Retrieved 8 June 2015.
  3. 1 2 Dameron, Emerson (October 21, 2014). "Departed Braintree founder starts $100 million venture fund". Built In Chicago. Retrieved 7 June 2015.
  4. ↑ Mims, Christopher (October 20, 2014). "Humanity's Last Great Hope: Venture Capitalists". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 7 June 2015.
  5. 1 2 Johnson, Bryan (October 20, 2014). "Rewrite the OS, Change the World". Medium. Retrieved 7 June 2015.
  6. ↑ Knapp, Alex (September 15, 2015). "Braintree Founder Unveils Open Source Playbook For Science Investors". Forbes. Retrieved October 8, 2015.
  7. ↑ "About". OS Fund. Retrieved 8 June 2015.
  8. 1 2 Pletz, John (June 29, 2011). "Startup Braintree gets funding from Accel Partners". Crain’s Chicago Business. Retrieved 3 May 2015.
  9. ↑ Mims, Christopher (October 20, 2014). "Humanity's Last Great Hope: Venture Capitalists". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 8 June 2015.
  10. ↑ "Manifesto". OS Fund. Retrieved 8 June 2015.
  11. ↑ "Working With Us". OS Fund. Retrieved 8 June 2015.
  12. ↑ Mangalindan, JP (October 20, 2014). "Crazy, insane start-ups are this tech investor's meat and potatoes". Fortune. Retrieved 8 June 2015.
  13. ↑ Buhr, Sarah (June 3, 2015). "YC Alum Atomwise Raises $6 Million To Further The Advancement Of Artificial Intelligence In Drug Discovery". TechCrunch. Retrieved October 8, 2015.
  14. ↑ Buhr, Sarah (December 18, 2014). "Hampton Creek Plans For World Food Tech Domination With $90 Million In Series C Funding". TechCrunch. Retrieved 8 June 2015.
  15. ↑ Gormley, Brian (March 18, 2015). "Ginkgo Bioworks Raises $9M to 'Engineer' Food Flavors, Fragrances". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 8 June 2015.
  16. ↑ Buhr, Sarah. "Why The First YC-Backed Biotech Company May Just Be The Future Of Pharma". TechCrunch. Retrieved 8 June 2015.
  17. ↑ "Ginkgo Bioworks Secures $45 Million from Viking Global, OS Fund, Y Combinator and Felicis Ventures" (Press release). Boston: Business Wire. July 23, 2015. Retrieved October 8, 2015.
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