Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, a venture firm that makes the life sciences one of its four main focuses, may have its eye on a new fund to invest in cloud computing.
Bloomberg News is reporting that KPCB partner Matt Murphy and other partners “have talked about” investing $100 million this year in cloud computing companies, which help corporations manage their data efficiently and securely by housing it on a remote network of servers. They already invested that much in cloud companies last year, he said.
The venture firm invests in seed-, early and growth-stage companies focused on greentech, digital, China and the life sciences. Currently, it operates four funds specifically designated for mobile apps, social networking, later-stage digital and greentech companies.
On the digital side, KPCB has pumped cash into major players that include Groupon, Compaq, Twitter and Zynga. Its extensive life sciences portfolio also includes Genentech, Onxy Pharmaceuticals and Nuvasive.
Cajoled by meaningful use and the implementation of electronic medical records, hospitals and private practices have taken to the cloud to help with healthcare’s Big Data problem. According to a recent survey from KLAS, more than half of clinics and hospitals surveyed had some sort of data in the cloud, and 58 percent said they planned to adopt cloud computing, especially small practices without the IT resources of hospitals.
Globally, the cloud computing market is expected to be worth $241 billion by 2020, nearly six times its value in 2011, according to Forrester Research.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
[Image from Kookkai_nak]
