Vijay Pande launches ultra-small VC fund focused on a handful of AI-biotech bets

Vijay Pande, once best known for creating the Folding@home project, spent more than ten years managing close to $4 billion of a16z’s health-tech portfolio before exiting the firm last June. Together with longtime investor Zach Werner, he launched VZVC, a venture operation that deliberately stays small, has no associates, and targets roughly five investments annually. The partnership leans on AI to streamline daily activities and to uncover insights that traditional animal models cannot provide, aiming to cut costs and improve success rates in drug development and clinical trials.

Pande emphasized that while AI cannot yet replace the need for extensive data, emerging foundation models and shared biological atlases could democratize access similar to open-source language models. He also stressed that he seeks founders with high integrity and a collaborative, long-term mindset, and that VZVC’s reputation often grants it room at the table without competing for hot rounds. The interview touched on the evolution of precision medicine, the difficulty of scraping biological data, and the broader shift toward AI-enabled biotech innovation.