Artis Ventures (AV)

ARTIS Ventures (AV) is a San Francisco-based venture capital firm founded in 2001 by Stuart Peterson, investing in category-defining companies at the intersection of technology, health, and biology. The firm coined and trademarked the term TechBio to describe this investment category, and has built one of the most distinctive track records in the space over more than two decades. Peterson is a Forbes Midas List honoree, recognized in large part for ARTIS's early bet on Stemcentrx. Additional partners include Austin Walne and Ameena El-Bibany. ARTIS leads rounds and deploys $250K to $25 million per investment — with a sweet spot around $10 million — at Seed and Series A stages across the United States, Canada, and Israel. With 84 investments to date, the portfolio spans YouTube, Palantir, Data Domain, Aruba Wireless Networks, Nimble Storage, Cohesity, Practice Fusion, Versa Networks, Excision BioTherapeutics, and Fabric Genomics. The firm invests across biotech, AI, software, health technology, and data analytics. ARTIS runs a structured TechBio Fellows program that embeds MDs, PhDs, and domain experts directly within the fund to work alongside the investment team and portfolio companies. This model bridges frontier science and venture investing in a concrete way: rather than relying on external advisors, the firm has built its own scientific talent pipeline inside the fund. The result is a portfolio company support infrastructure that is unusually deep for a venture firm of ARTIS's size.