VZVC

About

VZVC is a venture capital firm co-founded in 2025 by Vijay Pande and Zack Werner ¹². The firm is headquartered in San Francisco, California, with its website at vz.vc ³. VZVC describes itself as “a thesis-driven venture firm investing in companies solving humanity’s biggest problems, led by founders hell bent on bending the curve” ³.

Vijay Pande previously served as General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz from 2014 to 2025, where he founded the a16z Bio + Health practice ⁴⁵. Under his leadership, a16z Bio + Health raised four funds totaling more than $3 billion in capital, including a $1.5 billion fund that closed in 2022 ⁴. He announced his departure from a16z in June 2025 ⁴. Prior to venture capital, Pande was the Henry Dreyfus Professor of Chemistry, Structural Biology, and Computer Science at Stanford University, where he also directed the Program in Biophysics and founded the Folding@home distributed computing project ⁶⁷. He holds a PhD in Physics from MIT and a BA in Physics from Princeton ⁶.

Zack Werner is an entrepreneur and investor who founded Labyrinth Health, a firm working across private companies, policy, and social care to advance preventative and whole-person medicine ⁸. Werner also founded The Maze Group, a consultancy and private equity fund focused on digital transformation ⁹. He serves as an Independent Director on the board of Waldencast ⁹. Werner’s investment approach is highly operational: he takes large positions in a small number of companies whose financial outcomes are aligned with the health outcomes of their customers, often taking board seats and working as a part-time operator ⁸.

VZVC is reportedly raising its debut fund with a target of up to $400 million ². The firm made its first publicly known investment in January 2026, participating in Devoted Health’s $317 million Series F-Prime financing ¹⁰¹¹.

Stated Thesis

VZVC publicly describes its mission as investing in companies solving humanity’s biggest problems as artificial intelligence plays a bigger role in healthcare and biotech ¹³.

Pande has stated that the firm’s focus areas include machine learning and compute in medicine, scientific advances, and healthcare delivery improvements ¹. In his personal announcement about leaving a16z, Pande wrote: “Though I’m stepping away from the firm, I’m not stepping away from the cause. If anything, I feel more energized than ever about the future of bio + health” ⁵. He described his new chapter as “focused on the future of AI, healthcare, and prevention” ⁵.

The STAT News report characterized VZVC’s focus as “AI and consumer health” ².

Werner’s investment philosophy, which presumably carries into VZVC, centers on the belief that “healthcare is the world’s biggest solvable problem” ⁸. His approach emphasizes companies where financial success is directly tied to customer health outcomes ⁸. Labyrinth Health, his prior firm, also operates a think tank advising the Department of Health and Human Services on the use of AI in medicine ⁸.

Inferred Thesis

VZVC is an extremely early-stage firm with only 1 publicly confirmed investment as of March 2026. The sample size is too small to compute meaningful portfolio-level statistics. However, the founders’ track records provide strong directional signals.

Sector focus: The single confirmed VZVC investment (Devoted Health) is in healthcare services. Both founders’ entire careers are concentrated in healthcare and life sciences. Pande’s a16z board seats span biotech (Insitro, Freenome, BioAge, Scribe Therapeutics), digital health (Omada Health, Function Health), healthcare services (Devoted Health), and deep tech bio (Apeel Sciences, Nautilus Biotechnology, Q.bio) ⁵¹². Werner’s personal portfolio includes Seed Health, Fullscript, and Function Health ⁸. The firm is almost certain to invest exclusively in healthcare, biotech, and related AI applications.

Stage focus: Signal by NFX lists VZVC’s investment range as $100K to $10M, with a sweet spot at $100K ³. This suggests willingness to invest at seed stage. However, the Devoted Health investment was a late-stage round (Series F-Prime), indicating the firm will also participate in growth rounds, likely for companies where the founders have existing relationships.

Founder profile preferences: Based on Pande’s track record at a16z, VZVC is likely to favor founders with deep technical or scientific backgrounds, particularly at the intersection of biology, computer science, and AI ¹⁷. Pande has described his investment approach as focusing on companies that turn biology from a discovery science into an engineering discipline ¹³.

AI-native healthcare focus: The firm’s thesis explicitly centers on AI’s role in healthcare, suggesting a preference for companies using machine learning, computational biology, or AI-driven approaches rather than traditional biotech or pharma models.

Co-investor patterns: Too early to determine. The Devoted Health round included The Space Between (TSB), Centricus, GV, Morgan Health (JPMorgan Chase), Franklin Venture Partners, and VanEck ¹⁰.

Notable gaps: Despite the broad “humanity’s biggest problems” framing, the firm’s expertise and relationships are overwhelmingly concentrated in healthcare. Non-healthcare investments would be a significant departure from both founders’ track records.

Portfolio

Based on 1 verified investment. This represents the entirety of VZVC’s publicly confirmed portfolio as of March 2026. The firm is newly launched and actively building its portfolio.

In Their Own Words

Vijay Pande, in his Substack post announcing his departure from a16z:

“Though I’m stepping away from the firm, I’m not stepping away from the cause. If anything, I feel more energized than ever about the future of bio + health.” ⁵

Pande on the VZVC mission: the firm describes itself as “investing in companies solving humanity’s biggest problems, led by founders hell bent on bending the curve” ³.

Pande on the intersection of AI and biology, from his time at a16z: “A lot of basic research has to be done with discovery, but we don’t discover bridges — we design bridges! If you think about various areas, there are actually new ways of developing small molecules, cellular therapies, or mRNA vaccines — all of those things are really designed instead of discovered.” ¹³

Pande on the consumer health opportunity: “The most impactful way to fix healthcare is through improving the consumer experience, which has been largely ignored to date. In today’s modern world where you can order groceries, buy flight tickets, and wire money from your phone, taking care of yourself and navigating the healthcare system remains impossibly hard.” ¹³

Zack Werner on his investment philosophy: he believes “healthcare is the world’s biggest solvable problem” and takes positions in companies “whose financial outcomes are aligned with the health outcomes of their customers” ⁸.

What Founders Say

No independently sourced founder testimonials found specifically about VZVC, which is expected given the firm launched in late 2025. Regarding Vijay Pande’s work at a16z, insitro described his appointment as Scientific Advisor by noting that his “expertise in drug development, chemistry, and AI will accelerate the growth and impact” of their platform ¹².

Sources