Our Approach
VENTURE PHILANTHROPY
Venture philanthropy puts donated capital to work like an investment, deploying it strategically to advance the mission of a nonprofit. The Gund Vision Fund bridges the critical funding gap between discovery-stage research and drug development, making targeted investments in companies with the greatest potential to deliver treatments for inherited retinal diseases and dry AMD.
The Fund is flexible in how it structures investments, leveraging equity, debt, royalty, and project co-funding arrangements. All returns are recycled back to the Foundation Fighting Blindness to further its research mission and sustain the Fund's evergreen investment model.
INVESTMENT THESIS
The Gund Vision Fund operates under an evergreen model in which realized gains are reinvested into new opportunities, creating a self-sustaining structure that advances innovation without pressure for short-term returns. Capital is deployed through two complementary vehicles: the Core Fund and the Discovery Fund.
GV Fund Prospectus
The Gund Vision Fund is the first and only fund solely dedicated to advancing therapeutics for inherited retinal diseases and dry age-related macular degeneration. Launched by the Foundation Fighting Blindness in 2018 as the Retinal Degeneration Fund, the Fund has grown into a proven model for bridging the critical gap between discovery-stage research and treatments for patients. This prospectus outlines the Fund's investment strategy, its portfolio, and the scientific and clinical advantages that set it apart.
INVESTMENT THESIS
The Fund’s capital deployment strategy is designed to advance mission-critical innovation while preserving long-term sustainability by deploying capital through two complementary vehicles: the Core Fund and the Discovery Fund. Success is measured by financial returns and progress toward therapeutic milestones and meaningful impact on patients’ lives.
The Core Fund
The Core Fund provides meaningful, sustained capital to advance mid- to late-stage programs with strong translational potential.
Key features include:
- Patient-centric impact: Identify and advance investments into mission-aligned therapeutic programs.
- Meaningful financial support: Initial check size of $1–5 million (Seed to Series B), with up to $10–15 million in follow-on reserves.
- Flexible investment strategy: Includes both dilutive and non-dilutive investment vehicles to balance impact and financial return.
- Milestone-driven financing: To responsibly limit the Fund’s donor capital exposure, Capital is deployed in tranches tied to clearly defined scientific or clinical inflection points.
- Investments across therapeutic modalities: Target opportunities from genetic therapies, to biologics, small molecules, neuroprotection, optogenetics, and cell therapies, that apply to both IRDs and dry AMD/GA.
The Discovery Fund
The Discovery Fund supports high-risk, high-reward science at its earliest stage with catalytic seed investments, typically starting at $250K.
- Catalyst for bold ideas: Provides the first infusion of capital that often determines whether an idea stays on the bench or advances toward the clinic.
- De-risking innovation: Helps validate novel technologies, attract follow-on investors, and accelerate clinical readiness.
Both Funds use flexible financing structures, including equity and convertible debt. Operating under an ‘Evergreen’ model, realized gains are reinvested into new opportunities, enabling a self-sustaining structure that advances innovation, without pressure for immediate returns. Capital reserves are maintained to support follow-on investments in high-performing companies, deepening impact as promising programs advance.