Pavithra Sundaresan

Atlas Venture is a leading international venture capital investment manager specialized in sectors including life sciences, communications and information technology and investing in Europe and the US. The firm targets early-stage, science-based businesses and leads the first financing round, generally acquiring a significant minority stake which grants them board representation. They subsequently help recruiting a management team to carry the emerging business forward, typically towards international expansion. Atlas Venture also invests in later-stage operations such as corporate spin-offs and down financing. Investment criteria include leadership potential in a global high-growth market, market momentum and a proprietary disruptive technology or business model. In the technology industry, Atlas Venture focuses on components, systems, software and services. The group has invested in data warehousing, storage systems for digital media, core chips for mobile phones and MEMS-based displays for mobile devices. Their biotechnology investments focus on drug discovery. They have invested in blood-thinning agents, small interfering RNA, emerging cancer drugs and anti-infectives. Atlas Venture sources deals though a combination of top-down global market analysis and bottom-up local connections in their industries of choice, including contacts in the academic world. Their exit strategies are international and include M&A transactions and IPOs on a variety of exchanges.