Hatteras Venture Partners adds two senior execs, seeks new $100M fund

Durham-based Hatteras Venture Partners, a major investor in North Carolina life science companies for the last quarter century, has added two prominent executives to its team as the company embarks on a new investment fund.

Sir Andrew Witty, former chief executive officer of GlaxoSmithKline and UnitedHealth Group, was named chairman, a newly created position. He was a venture partner at Hatteras from 2017 to 2019.

Norman “Ned” Sharpless, M.D., a former director of the National Cancer Institute and a former acting commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, joined Hatteras as managing director of Hatteras Discovery Innovation, succeeding Christy Shaffer in the role. Sharpless was also co-founder of G1 Therapeutics (acquired by Pharmacosmos A/S), which received its first institutional investment from Hatteras.

“To build great healthcare companies, you must have a great team,” said Clay Thorp, a founding general partner of Hatteras Venture Partners. “The addition of Andrew and Ned brings a complementary set of relationships and experiences to our longstanding and next-generation partners.

“Andrew has a rare breadth of perspective across pharmaceuticals, healthcare delivery and global health. Ned is an accomplished oncologist, scientist, founder and public-sector leader, making him the ideal person to lead a new generation of company creation at Hatteras.”

Witty joined Glaxo in 1985 as a management trainee and rose to CEO of the company from 2008 to 2017. He was CEO of UnitedHealth Group from 2021 to 2025.

“Hatteras has always paired scientific ambition with discernment and a practical understanding of how enduring healthcare companies are built,” Witty said. “I am pleased to return and help the team extend that approach at an important moment for the firm and the healthcare industry.”

New fund being raised

Witty and Sharpless joined Hatteras as the company announced the first closing of Hatteras Opportunity Fund II (HOF II), which is targeting $100 million in capital commitments. HOF II will make concentrated follow-on investments in selected Hatteras portfolio companies as they approach important clinical, regulatory and commercial milestones.

HOF II builds on Hatteras Opportunity Fund I (HOF I), which made “high-conviction” investments in later-stage portfolio companies as they reached critical points in their development, according to Hatteras. The company cited, for example, its HOF I investments in HistoSonics and Perfuse Therapeutics 2.5 years and 1.5 years, respectively, before major liquidity exits for the companies in 2025.

HistoSonics, a medical device company with operations in the Midwest, was acquired by an investor syndicate for about $2.25 billion. Bayer acquired Perfuse Therapeutics, an ophthalmology-focused biopharmaceutical company based in South San Francisco, Calif., with R&D facilities in Durham, N.C., for up to $2.45 billion.

Hatteras said HOF II will continue the previous fund’s investment strategy, enabling the firm to double down on the most promising companies within its core funds as those companies approach significant milestones and potential exits.

A renewed Hatteras Discovery strategy

Sharpless will lead a renewed Hatteras Discovery strategy modeled on the original initiative launched in 2012. That effort seeded 11 companies, contributed to multiple public listings and acquisitions, and generated two novel medicines, Cosela and Xipere, approved by the FDA.

The next-generation Hatteras Discovery strategy will draw opportunities from the firm’s academic and industry relationships. Sharpless and the Hatteras team will evaluate seed-stage discoveries, form companies around the most promising programs, and accelerate their development.

“Hatteras took an early bet on G1 Therapeutics and worked alongside us for years to turn an academic insight into a public biotechnology company with an approved medicine,” Sharpless said. “That experience is central to what we want to recreate through Hatteras Discovery Innovation: find exceptional science early, bring the right people and resources around it, and build companies capable of producing meaningful therapies.”

Hatteras manages more than $1 billion in capital focused on companies in the health innovation sectors of biotechnology, medtech and healthtech. It supports companies from formation and seed-stage development through later stages of clinical, regulatory and commercial growth.

Hatteras was founded in 2000 with the closing of Hatteras Venture Partners I, a seed-stage venture fund with $2.93 million in capital.

Over its 26-year history, Hatteras has invested in more than 100 portfolio companies throughout North America, many of them located in the Southeast and about 25% based in North Carolina. The company’s website lists 45 current portfolio companies and 29 more that led to exits.  

Read more about Hatteras Ventures:

1. Entrepreneurs, investors convene at ConvergeSouth 2026 | North Carolina Biotechnology Center
2. 410 Medical secures $12M in financing for next-gen medical device | North Carolina Biotechnology Center
3. Bayer to acquire Perfuse Therapeutics, a biotech developing ocular disease treatments in RTP | North Carolina Biotechnology Center