Rockefeller family's venture division, Venrock, founded by Laurance Rockefeller, has raised a new $194 million fund to cater to investment deals in late-stage and public health care companies.

The firm - founded in 1969, much before the term "venture capital" was coined - made its first investment in Intel; and has characteristically been investing in technology and health care start-ups. The founder funded young companies, like Eastern Airlines and McDonnell Aircraft, in as far back as the 1930s.

This is for the first time that Venrock is setting aside a funding for a particular sector, and especially focusing on late-stage companies. Till now, the firm's $2.2 billion past investment, and its $600 million currently-investing fund, have gone towards young startups in diverse sectors like health care, digital media, information technology and energy.  

Noting that most biotech companies go public even before having a product on the market, Bryan Roberts - one of the five Venrock partners making health care investments - said that investment in public health care companies is practically a more promising prospect than an investment in other sector, including technology.

Roberts added: "Health care companies have large and technical risks even when they are in the public markets - biotech companies are still developing drugs even when they're public - so there are large changes in value based on their success or failure at that."