February 2025

When RiverVest Managing Directors Tom Melzer and Jay Schmelter co-founded a life sciences venture capital firm in St. Louis at the turn of the millennium, they were determined to build a company that would stand the test of time. 

Tom Melzer and Jay Schmelter, along with the late Andy Craig,

launched RiverVest Venture Partners in September 2000.

Twenty-five years later, RiverVest is stronger than ever with a track record that includes 60 companies backed over five core investment funds, 19 companies founded, 22 profitable exits to date, 39 financings led, and 30 commercial products currently treating patients. 

In our 25 years, we have made sustained, concentrated efforts to:

• Tap into forward-thinking research and clinical expertise to identify significant unmet medical needs.

• Build a high-functioning, experienced team through careful hiring and fostering a positive culture in which every team member is given opportunities to grow and contribute to the success of the firm.

• Add value to portfolio companies by providing hands-on operational support and management expertise.

• Cultivate a strong network of peer firms around the world with whom to co-lead and build successful investment syndicates.

• Maintain discipline, declining interesting deals that do not hit the sweet spot of RiverVest’s investment strategy.

Throughout this milestone anniversary year, RiverVest will invite stakeholders to learn more about the enduring mission of the firm, the key members of our investment team, and the innovative life science technologies in which we invest.

Looking ahead, our team remains optimistic about the outlook for life science investing—particularly at the early stage, which is where RiverVest focuses. The conditions continue to trend positive: a robust flow of new scientific discovery, attractive early-stage valuations, heightened need for large pharma and biotech companies to access new prospective products (and their ability to pay for them!), a less restrictive M&A regulatory climate, and a sound economic backdrop so long as the Fed can achieve its 2% inflation target over time.

Investing as venture capitalists is a gratifying endeavor. We are able to help companies and their founders transform promising concepts into successful therapies that can benefit countless people, while delivering consistently strong returns to investors. We look forward to continuing our mandate to be a leader in the founding and funding of successful life science companies well into the future. 

Oversubscribed financing supports development of RNAi therapies for serious neurological diseases

Boston-based Atalanta Therapeutics is pioneering disease-modifying therapeutic options for intractable diseases of the central nervous system using RNA interference (RNAi). The company’s unique platform of divalent small interfering RNA (di-siRNA) enables durable, selective gene silencing throughout the brain and spinal cord.

RiverVest’s investment was part of an oversubscribed $97 million Series B financing to support Phase 1 clinical trials for two programs addressing serious neurological diseases: ATL-201, which is designed to treat a life-threatening form of childhood epilepsy by reducing levels of mutated KCNT1 and normalizing neuronal excitability, and ATL-101, which is designed to reduce toxic protein build up in the brain of patients with Huntington’s disease.

“There is a lot to like with this investment—a strong, proactive management team and a huge unmet medical need in a rare pediatric indication, with the ability to break out into much, much larger societal-impacting indications, including Huntington’s Disease,” said RiverVest Managing Director Niall O’Donnell, Ph.D., who joined Atalanta’s board of directors in conjunction with this financing. “Atalanta has been transitioning from a platform company to a product company, which we’ve been able to support. We also like that the company was incubated by F-Prime, a leader in the neuro space and a co-investor in RiverVest portfolio companies Engrail Therapeutics, Avalyn Pharma, and Xilio Therapeutics.

“The targets have all been validated in preclinical studies,” continued O’Donnell. “If we see the same safety and exposure in kids and adults that we’ve seen in non-human primates, this could be a truly transformational therapeutic approach.” 

The financing was co-led by EQT Life Sciences and Sanofi Ventures, with participation from funds managed by abrdn Inc, Novartis Venture Fund, Pictet Alternative Advisors, Mirae Asset Financial Group, and GHR Foundation, along with RiverVest and existing investor F-Prime Capital.

Learn more about Atalanta here.

In case you missed it, RiverVest Managing Director Derek Rapp shared insights into the urgent global need for diabetes prevention in an article published on World Diabetes Day, November 14, 2024. Read here about the progress being made in diabetes care, from the first human administration of insulin in 1921 to the development of a new wearable device (Biolinq) with electrochemical sensors so small that a person can barely feel them.



Follow-up Reading: On January 8, 2024, The World Economic Forum published an op-ed by Rich Yang, CEO of RiverVest portfolio company Biolinq, on how two groundbreaking innovations – wearable biosensors and GLP-1 receptor agonists – are reshaping how diabetes is managed, offering renewed hope for more personalized and effective care. Read the op-ed here.  

Access to outstanding research scientists and physicians is a critical asset for RiverVest as we conduct due diligence in our process of considering investment in a company. While our team is highly experienced and includes five PhD scientists, we depend on other experts to supplement our knowledge in specific fields. These experts help us determine the safety risks of a potential product, the likelihood that a product will be effective at a reasonable dose in a form that a patient will accept, how a product might compare to competitors, and much more.



RiverVest is fortunate to have an excellent group of researchers to help us with technical due diligence – our Scientific Advisory Board. We consult with them often for their expertise in their respective fields.

Learn more about RiverVest’s Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) here.

In November, our SAB convened at Torrey Pines in San Diego for clinical updates from portfolio company leaders and research insights from distinguished professors in the fields of immunology and neurology:

• Engrail CEO Vikram Sundarsan, Ph.D., and CSO Kim Vanover,Ph.D., presented the design of the company’s ongoing Phase 2 trial in patients with Generalized Anxiety Disorder.

• Wugen’s COO and EVP of R&D Ayman Kabakibi, Ph.D, reported on the latest data from the company’s ongoing Phase 2 trial with their off-the-shelf anti-CD7 CAR-T, which looks very compelling. Wugen will start a pivotal trial early this year.

• John Cambier*, Distinguished Professor of Immunology at CU Anchutz, gave a presentation on B cells targets he has elucidated.

• Albert La Spada, M.D., Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of Neurology at the University of California Irvine, spoke about repeat expansion disorders (genetic diseases caused by the abnormal expansion of repetitive DNA sequences within genes) and recent work on autophagy that’s happening in his lab.

The next SAB meeting will take place in St. Louis in April 2025. RiverVest is grateful for the support of these esteemed colleagues and advisors. 

*Dr. Cambier, along with Gary DeCrescenzo, joined the RiverVest Scientific Advisory Board in December 2024.

For up-to-the-minute portfolio company news and announcements, be sure to visit the RiverVest website and follow us on LinkedIn.

Recent announcements include:

RiverVest Venture Partners is a leading life science venture capital firm focused on improving the lives of patients, supporting entrepreneurs, and earning the trust of investors through science, strategy, and innovation. 

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