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announced Wednesday that it has closed on nearly $3 billion for its 12th flagship fund, which will focus on early-stage biotechnology companies.

The fund is the largest to date for the 35-year-old, Chicago-headquartered firm, which is known for its persistent approach to investment across market cycles. Currently, even as public biotech valuations are far below last year鈥檚 highs, ARCH co-founder and managing director indicated there would be no slowdown in funding activity.

鈥淪cience doesn’t care what markets are doing, and science moves forward,鈥� Nelsen said in a statement accompanying the funding announcement.

Nelsen said the firm is looking to fund startups 鈥渨ith potential to solve some of the biggest health challenges.鈥� Startups of interest are working on breakthroughs in a range of focus areas, including infectious disease, mental health, immunology, oncology, neurology, age-related disease, genomic and biological tools, and ways to reimagine diagnostics and therapies.

2022 investments

So far this year, ARCH has made 11 disclosed investments, . Earlier this month, the firm co-led an $85 million Series C round for , a startup focused on single-cell spatial genomics. Other big lead rounds this year include a $167 million Series C for mRNA-focused , and a $76 million Series A for immunotherapy developer .

ARCH invests primarily in companies it co-founds with scientists and entrepreneurs. The firm is commonly a lead investor, but also co-invests with other VCs, particularly in larger rounds. Its early- and later-stage rounds tend to be on the large side by venture standards, typically in the tens of millions and often exceeding $100 million.

Several ARCH-backed companies have also debuted on public markets in recent quarters, including drug developer , cancer therapy developer , and genetic medicines company .

The latest fund is a big step up in size. ARCH raised nearly $2 billion for its previous fund, ARCH Venture Fund XI, which closed in January 2021.

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