Borealis Ventures

Borealis Ventures is a venture capital firm based in Hanover, New Hampshire, founded in 2002, with a singular focus on transforming healthcare through new therapies, digital innovation, and enabling technologies. The firm invests in life sciences, digital health, and animal healthcare, typically deploying $250,000 to $750,000 per company. Borealis has made 87 investments across five funds — including the Vox Health Fund — and has achieved 24 portfolio exits. The firm leads rounds and maintains a close relationship with the Dartmouth and Tuck academic ecosystem. Notable exits include Glaukos (medical technology for glaucoma) and Repligen (bioprocessing life sciences). Recent portfolio companies include ASTRA Therapeutics, Jenga Biosciences, Triveni Bio, and OvaInnovations (exit recorded November 2024). The data-driven, thematic approach has produced over 50 executed deals across multiple healthcare sub-verticals. Borealis is led by co-founder and Partner Phil Ferneau, who leads healthcare investing, alongside Partners Ben Shaw and Julia Stephanus. The team's collective background in healthcare investment and proximity to New England's research institutions enables early access to academic spinouts and clinician-founded companies at the pre-institutional stage. Borealis places particular emphasis on backing founders who are advancing genuinely differentiated science or platform technologies, rather than incremental product improvements.