# Craig Taylor

> Craig Taylor is a Series B investor at Alloy Ventures backing Health Care and Biotechnology. See 3 investments, check sizes, portfolio. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: Angel Investor
- Fund: [Alloy Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/alloy-ventures)
- Location: San Francisco Bay Area, United States
- Total investments: 3
- Last investment: May 2013
- Lead investor: 33%
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/craig-taylor-03596616

Craig Taylor is a Series B investor at Alloy Ventures in San Francisco Bay Area focused on Health Care and Biotechnology. Craig C. Taylor has been an active venture capitalist since 1977, and co-founded Alloy Ventures with John Shoch in 1996. At Alloy, he focuses on investments in laboratory instrumentation, diagnostics and cleantech, especially green-focused companies that sit at the intersection of biotech, nanotech and IT.Craig is a veteran venture capitalinvestor and expert in technology transfer from leading research institutions. Before co-founding Alloy Ventures, he worked at Asset Management Co., which he joined in 1977. Previously, Craig worked in the Office of Technology Licensing at Stanford University from 1975 to 1977. He is a past member of the Board of Directors of the National Venture Capital Association, and serves on the Board of Advisors of the MIT/Stanford Venture Laboratory. He earned a BS (1972) and an MS (1974) in physics from Brown University, and an MBA from Stanford (1977).Craig serves on the board of directors of ForteBio, Labcyte, Optimedica, Zyomyx, and KFx Medical.Craig has led successful investments in, and served on the boards of, dozens of leading life science companies. He was a founding board member of Applied Biosystems, the pioneering biotechnology company founded in 1981 that was later became a division of Applera and was recently sold for $6.7 billion to Invitrogen Corp. He was also a founding board member of Adeza Biomedical, a woman's health company that completed a public offering on Nasdaq in 2004 and was later acquired by Cytec. He also served on the board of Lynx Therapeutics, a provider of genetic analysis tools for biological research that completed an IPO on Nasdaq in 2000, and later merged with Solex Ltd., before it was acquired by Illumina for $600 million 2006.

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Health Care | 1 | 33% |
| Biotechnology | 1 | 33% |
| Medical Device | 1 | 33% |

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Series B | 1 | 33% |
| Series C | 1 | 33% |
| Series E | 1 | 33% |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| OptiMedica | OptiMedica Corporation is a Silicon Valley-based global ophthalmic device company dedicated to developing performance-driven technologies that improve patient outcomes. The company was founded in 2004 with the vision of bringing innovative new technologies to ophthalmologists and transforming existing standards of care.Since its founding,OptiMedica has been developing a reproducible, noninvasive technique to replace the inconsistent manual steps in cataract surgery with femtosecond laser technology. The system has been designed to deliver new levels of precision, control, performance, and efficacy to cataract surgeons and their patients. OptiMedica has completed clinical trials of its Catalysâ„¢ Precision Laser System, with very promising results reported across these measures. While the Catalys Precision Laser System is not currently for sale in the United States, OptiMedica expects to launch the system in U.S. and international markets in 2011. | $35M | Series E | May 10, 2013 |  |
| OptiMedica | OptiMedica Corporation is a Silicon Valley-based global ophthalmic device company dedicated to developing performance-driven technologies that improve patient outcomes. The company was founded in 2004 with the vision of bringing innovative new technologies to ophthalmologists and transforming existing standards of care.Since its founding,OptiMedica has been developing a reproducible, noninvasive technique to replace the inconsistent manual steps in cataract surgery with femtosecond laser technology. The system has been designed to deliver new levels of precision, control, performance, and efficacy to cataract surgeons and their patients. OptiMedica has completed clinical trials of its Catalysâ„¢ Precision Laser System, with very promising results reported across these measures. While the Catalys Precision Laser System is not currently for sale in the United States, OptiMedica expects to launch the system in U.S. and international markets in 2011. | $16M | Series C | Mar 26, 2008 |  |
| OptiMedica | OptiMedica Corporation is a Silicon Valley-based global ophthalmic device company dedicated to developing performance-driven technologies that improve patient outcomes. The company was founded in 2004 with the vision of bringing innovative new technologies to ophthalmologists and transforming existing standards of care.Since its founding,OptiMedica has been developing a reproducible, noninvasive technique to replace the inconsistent manual steps in cataract surgery with femtosecond laser technology. The system has been designed to deliver new levels of precision, control, performance, and efficacy to cataract surgeons and their patients. OptiMedica has completed clinical trials of its Catalysâ„¢ Precision Laser System, with very promising results reported across these measures. While the Catalys Precision Laser System is not currently for sale in the United States, OptiMedica expects to launch the system in U.S. and international markets in 2011. |  | Series B | Apr 26, 2006 |  |

3 of 3 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [Kleiner Perkins](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/kleiner-perkins-caufield-byers) — VC Fund, 3 deals together
- [BlackRock](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/blackrock) — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- [DAG Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/dag-ventures) — VC Fund, 1 deal together

## About Alloy Ventures

VC Fund · Palo Alto, United States

Alloy Ventures is an early stage venture capital firm that invests in the areas of life sciences, information technology, and cleantech.

5 contacts available at Alloy Ventures.

| Name | Title | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Craig Taylor | Co-Founder & General Partner | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/craig-taylor |
| Dave Pidwell | Venture Partner | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/dave-pidwell |
| John Shoch | Co-Founder & General Partner | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/john-shoch |
| Leighton Read | Venture Partner | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/leighton-read |
| Leighton Read | Venture Partner | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/leighton-read-2 |

## Similar investors

### Similar stage
- [Alumni Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/alumni-ventures-group) — VC Fund
- [General Catalyst](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/general-catalyst-partners) — VC Fund
- [FJ Labs](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/fj-labs) — VC Fund

## FAQ

### What does Craig Taylor invest in?

Craig Taylor invests primarily in Health Care, Biotechnology and Medical Device startups, most often at Series B and Series C stage. Most of the 3 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United States. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.

### When did Craig Taylor last invest?

The most recent investment recorded for Craig Taylor closed in May 2013. Shizune tracks 3 investments in total for this profile, including round sizes, stages and portfolio companies, all sourced from confirmed public funding rounds and refreshed monthly.

### Is Shizune's investor data accurate?

Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Aug 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.

# About Shizune
Shizune.co is an investor database. Core features:
- 48,091 startup investors (angels, VCs, accelerators, and others)
- Email, phone, LinkedIn (for intros), socials, and other contact data
- Updated daily from public funding news
- CSV and Excel export

The User can access the full database FOR FREE after signing up: shizune.co
