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Portal Innovations, a life sciences investor and incubator, is raising $100 million for its third fund, founder and CEO John Flavin tells Axios Pro.

Why it matters: Portal aims to help fill any funding gaps left by recent threats to NIH grants.

What they're saying: "The early-stage environment for funding is shifting pretty dramatically as we see the current administration pull back on NIH funding, or at least create uncertainty in that area," Flavin says.

Zoom in: Dubbed the Velocity Fund, the financing will be used to invest in pre-seed and seed-stage startups being spun out of universities, as well as Series A and Series B rounds.

Portal's checks range from $500,000 to $10 million, Flavin says. It expects to close on the fund by the end of 2026.

Follow the money: Portal's current limited partners include family offices, single-disease research organizations and strategic corporate investors.

The big picture: Among various macro challenges hitting biotech this year, the NIH cutting funding to some of the best U.S. academic research institutions is the top issue for early-stage life sciences companies.

Threat level: "If this is a protracted pullback … you're going to start to dry up the inventory of those investable ideas five, 10 years down the road," Flavin says.

Catch up quick: Portal was founded in Chicago in 2020 on a model to invest in life sciences companies, while also providing them physical wet lab space in an incubator-like setting.

Portal has since expanded to Boston, Atlanta, Houston, New Jersey, Dublin, and Providence, Rhode Island, and has about 26 companies in its portfolio.

How it works: Portal invests across therapeutic areas, as well as life sciences companies using quantum, AI and battery technology.

The intrigue: To help find investments, Portal uses a proprietary AI tool called Stargaze, which analyzes millions of grants, papers and patents, to identify promising academic entrepreneurs.

"There's been an innovation arms race at top research institutions," Flavin says. "We are in a very unique position with a special platform, which combines the lab space proximate to top research institutions around the country."

Portal has invested in companies from the University of Chicago, MIT and Baylor College of Medicine.

State of play: Other biotech investors, such as Catalio Capital Management and Santé Ventures, are either raising or have closed new funds this year.

Portal Innovations targets $100M biotech fund

It aims to help fill gaps left by NIH grant cutbacks.

Illustration of an American flag made up of syringes and quarters

Portal Innovations, a life sciences investor and incubator, is raising $100 million for its third fund, founder and CEO John Flavin tells Axios Pro.Why it matters: Portal aims to help fill any funding gaps left by <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="recent threats" data-vars-click-url="https://www.axios.com/2025/06/24/nih-grantees-funds-limbo" data-vars-content-id="171a8049-14ff-4c14-bb96-c79d29921a3c" data-vars-headline="Portal Innovations targets $100M biotech fund" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.axios.com/2025/06/24/nih-grantees-funds-limbo" target="_self">recent threats</a> to NIH grants.

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Portal Innovations targets $100M biotech fund

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