Hatteras opens $100M second Opportunity Fund, adds ex-GSK chief Witty as chairman
What's the deal? Hatteras Venture Partners has held the first closing of Hatteras Opportunity Fund II, a venture fund targeting $100 million. The Durham, North Carolina firm, which focuses on healthcare innovation, will use the fund for concentrated follow-on investments in existing portfolio companies as they approach clinical, regulatory, and commercial milestones. The closing brings Hatteras's capital under management to over $1 billion.
The hires: Sir Andrew Witty, former chief executive officer of GlaxoSmithKlineDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → and UnitedHealth GroupDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, has been named chairman. Norman "Ned" Sharpless, a former director of the National Cancer Institute and former acting commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration, joins as managing director of Hatteras Discovery Innovation. Both build on prior ties: Witty was a venture partner at the firm from 2017 to 2019, and Sharpless co-founded G1 Therapeutics, in which Hatteras was the first institutional investor.
What's the endgame? Sharpless will lead a renewed Hatteras Discovery strategy modelled on a 2012 initiative that seeded 11 companies and produced two FDA-approved medicines, Cosela and Xipere. The plan: evaluate seed-stage science, form companies around the most promising programs, and accelerate their development.
Why now? The new fund builds on Hatteras Opportunity Fund I, which invested in HistoSonics and Perfuse TherapeuticsDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → 2.5 and 1.5 years, respectively, before major exits for both. HOF II continues that approach, letting the firm double down on its strongest companies from its core funds.
"To build great healthcare companies, you must have a great team," said Clay Thorp, a founding general partner. He called Sharpless "the ideal person to lead a new generation of company creation at Hatteras."
The signal: Hatteras is bridging both ends of the healthcare-building pipeline — seeding new science through Discovery while backing late-stage winners through Opportunity Fund II. The senior hires signal an effort to pair that dual strategy with deep pharmaceutical and regulatory credibility.
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