Saratoga Ventures, a Los Gatos, Calif., venture-capital firm specializing in early-stage medical-device investments, has raised $3 million as part of an expected $25 million sixth fund, PE Wire reports.
That may not sound like a lot, but investing in early-stage companies obviously requires far less capital than later rounds, and Saratoga has a fairly impressive portfolio, including companies we've written about recently such as Asthmatx, Paracor and Point Biomedical.
Also, props to Saratoga for continuing to list its investments in companies that have since failed or dissolved, such as Converge Medical and TheraCardia. I like to think of this as the Bessemer Anti-Portfolio Effect, and it's always refreshing to see. Everyone knows that venture investing is a high-risk, high-reward sort of business, but the way most VCs present their portfolios, you'd be forgiven for thinking that Sand Hill Road's geniuses had somehow managed to factor risk entirely out of the equation.