Versant operates its own discovery labs (called Ridgeline in Basel and Highline in New York) where in-house scientists work to turn academic research into fully formed biotech companies, creating about half of its portfolio companies from scratch rather than just investing in existing startups. The firm seeds these new companies with tens of millions of dollars—significantly more than typical in regions like Europe—and re-runs key experiments independently before fully committing, importing big-pharma discipline into venture-backed biotech.