Reed Jobs doesn't aim to "cure cancer".

For Jobs – an investor and also the son of Steve Jobs – the goal is more precise: to make cancer “non-fatal.” This difference in wording is very important.

“I don’t think you can cure cancer, because we are human,” said Jobs, “Any human cell has the potential to turn into a cancer cell, right? And we will never stop having human cells. So, the idea that they can never turn into cancer is absurd. That risk will not disappear.”

However, no matter how advanced medicine is, it is still rare to be able to completely eradicate diseases. But there is still a way to make cancer less formidable to deal with. Jobs believes that the trajectory of the development of AIDS can serve as a reference for what might be possible in cancer treatment.

"Unfortunately, there is no vaccine for [AIDS]," he said, "I certainly hope there is one, but in the absence of a vaccine, it is not as terrifying in the United States anymore because it is no longer fatal. With a combination of medications, it is actually possible to prevent death. In many ways, I consider this to be a huge victory, and in some respects, it is the most crucial victory of all. Because this is a victory over death, and that is exactly what I wish cancer patients could achieve as well."

For Jobs, this has always been his lifelong passion. Even as a teenager, when his father was ill, he began working in a cancer research laboratory (Steve Jobs passed away in 2011). Today, he is a venture capitalist and the founder of the venture capital firm Yosemite. This firm was established in 2023 after splitting off from Laurene Powell Jobs's Emerson Collective. Both Yosemite (as well as Jobs himself) focus on cancer-related investments, supporting both startups and scientific research through funding.

Jobs exclusively informs Fortune and Term Sheet Podcast, that Yosemite has now completed the second phase of its fund raising, with a scale of 350 million US dollars, which is a significant increase from the 200 million US dollars raised in January of this year. The limited partners of Yosemite include Amgen (Amgen), AbbVie (AbbVie), the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, as well as the legendary venture capitalist John Doerr. The model of Yosemite is quite unique: to some extent, it adopts the traditional venture capital model by investing in startups early on and holding a larger stake in the exit path (he clearly stated that the goal is to achieve venture capital-level returns). However, Yosemite also provides charitable funding for scientific research to scientists.

“Through charity, we can fail at a very low cost,” said Jobs, “and that’s where the true wisdom lies… A difficult and less ideal aspect of my industry is that the pace is too slow. Of course, from a regulatory perspective, this is very important. But it also means that you might waste a lot of money on things that won’t succeed, which is obviously bad. What we’ve learned is that we can test new ideas quickly and at low cost with funding from universities. Before wasting a lot of time, money, and resources, we can at least try out the first approach.”

The first phase of the fund, Yosemite, completed its fundraising in 2024 with a scale of 263 million US dollars. The investment projects include AI, a drug discovery startup; Chai Discovery, a cervical cancer screening company; Tune Therapeutics, an epigenetic therapy drug company; and Sage Care, a nursing navigation startup. This diversity reflects Jobs's vision for how the medical system and science must ultimately evolve.

“I don’t think that a single company can make cancer non-fatal on its own,” said Jobs. “I believe it will be a collaborative effort by multiple entities. It’s likely to be a very long process, with progress probably being made one cancer type at a time.”

When Jobs founded Yosemite in 2023, the biotechnology industry was in a downturn, but this situation has significantly improved in recent years. He said that the biggest change comes from the scientific progress of the past three years.

"Four years ago, you couldn't have told me that today we would be sitting here, and that we would have made these breakthroughs in GLP-1, immunotherapy, vaccines, and in the treatment of pancreatic cancer," said Jobs. "All of these things have happened, and they represent a huge change for the entire industry."

I asked Jobs, what advice his father would give him.

“I think he would say to stick to this path, because what we have in common is that we are both very adept at long-term construction,” said Jobs. “Yosemite will not reach the peak of success in the next one or two years. This project is a long-term bet that will occupy my entire life.”

See you tomorrow,

Allie Garfinkle

X: @ agarfinks

Email: alexandra.garfinkle @ fortune.com

You can submit the transaction information for Term Sheet communication here.

Morgan Chittum has organized the trading section from today's newsletter.

Venture Capital

• AI startup based in San Francisco, Applied Compute, has raised another $350 million, bringing its post-investment valuation to $3.25 billion. This round of financing was led by Elad Gil, with participation from Blackstone, NVIDIA, Kleiner Perkins, Lux Capital, Hanabi Capital, Shopify Ventures, and others.
• Voice proxy construction platform Guava has completed a $12.5 million seed round of financing, led by Acrew Capital, with other investors including Flourish Ventures, WillowTree Ventures, Clocktower Ventures, and Commerce Ventures.
• A startup company from Erlangen, Germany, Quint Computing, raised approximately $10.2 million in its first round of financing to develop chip architectures for quantum computers. Vsquared Ventures led the investment, with Quantonation, Nucleus Capital, Faber, Vanagon Ventures, ZOHO.VC participating, as well as angel investors Mikko M ö tt ö nen.
• Home robotics company Syncere has completed a $11 million pre-seed financing round, led by a16z and Speedrun, with participation from Draper Associates, Physical World, Sequel, SeaX Ventures, and others.

Exit transaction

• Advent agrees to acquire the shares of Vermeg held by Charterhouse Capital Partners. Vermeg is a company that provides software for capital markets and life insurance. A wholly-owned subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority will participate as a minority co-investor, while Vermeg founder Badreddine Ouali will continue to hold shares. Financial terms have not been disclosed.
• Energy Capital Partners acquired an 892-megawatt portfolio of natural gas combined cycle power plants located in Texas and Illinois from Fengate Asset Management. These facilities supply steam and electricity to two petrochemical complexes under long-term contracts. The financial terms were not disclosed.

Others

• Cloud-native insurance software provider EIS has been acquired by Amdocs for approximately $340 million in cash plus performance-based incentives.
• Chord, this AI business data platform, has acquired the AI business intelligence platform Zenlytic. The financial terms have not been disclosed.
• San Francisco's Omen AI announced the acquisition of Aquatic Labs for a transaction amount of $16 million, with payment in cash and stock. Omen AI has raised a total of $46 million in financing, with investors including Sheryl Sandberg, Nava Ventures, and CRV.

Personnel

• Former IR executive, former risk partner of Scrum Ventures, joined GLP-1 weight management company in Copenhagen as the Chief of Staff.