Recode Ventures

Recode Ventures

Recode Ventures launched in 2022 when Vishal Gulati, a physician-scientist and former DFJ-Esprit, Atlas Venture, and Oxford Science Enterprises investor, teamed with Armen Vidian, an MIT- and Stanford-trained engineer who previously co-founded BlueTalon and built the healthcare-investing practice at DCVC. Gulati's portfolio of more than 40 companies over his career and Vidian's track record of early-stage AI-to-healthcare bets at DCVC shape the firm's thesis: the convergence of deep tech and biology creates a historic window for new therapeutic and care-delivery models. The firm writes seed and Series A checks for founder-led companies that apply AI, machine learning, robotics, and computational biology directly to pharmaceutical development, diagnostics, and clinical operations. Portfolio companies span the US and the UK. Confirmed positions include Sensible Biotechnologies, which engineers mRNA for therapeutic applications in Oxford; Nanograb, a London-based startup using AI to target genetic drugs to specific tissues; Waypoint Bio, a New York company leveraging spatial biology and ML to design cancer cell therapies; and Proprio, a Seattle firm blending AR/VR with surgical planning. The roster also includes Lab Genius in London, Probably Genetic in San Francisco, and the previously acquired Caption Health, whose AI-guided echocardiogram technology is now part of GE HealthCare. Gulati and Vidian's earlier investments — including AbCellera, Recursion, and Evonetix — further define the firm's long-running conviction in computationally driven biology. Recode's nine disclosed professionals operate from San Francisco and London. Operating partners, advisors, and board members extend the team's reach: Baroness Nicola Blackwood, Chair of Genomics England, and Sir Bruce Keogh, former Medical Director of the NHS, anchor life-science policy expertise, while Jeff Berkowitz, who led Optum International following senior roles at Walgreens Boots Alliance and Merck, and Tim Garnett, Eli Lilly's Chief Medical Officer for over a decade, bring deep pharmaceutical commercial and clinical-regulatory knowledge. The venture-fellow program, exemplified by Oscar Marshall's Ph.D. work on cell-free protein synthesis at Imperial College, creates a pipeline for future deep-tech deal leads. Recode's structure differs from many early-stage life-science VCs in operating at the intersection of two distinct capital-allocation lineages: Gulati's two-decade presence across European and US venture ecosystems and Vidian's tenure inside the first institutionally recognized AI-focused VC. That dual heritage shapes a deal-sourcing model that combines classical healthcare venture with computational-first deal evaluation, keeping the firm anchored in seed dynamics while maintaining the operational density to serve on boards of companies like Clue, Proprio, and Sensible Biotechnologies.