Apple Tree Files Chapter 11 to Halt $6.5B Fund Fight With Rybolovlev
Apple Tree Life Sciences filed Chapter 11 to preserve its $6.5B biotech fund amid a governance and funding dispute with Dmitry Rybolovlev's Rigmora.
- Petition date
- December 9, 2025
- Case type
- Freefall
- Industry
- Biotechnology
A Cayman Islands court has appointed independent officeholders to oversee Apple Tree Life Sciences' investment fund, and the two appointees—Alexander Lawson and Barry Lynch of Alvarez & Marsal Cayman Islands—asked the Delaware court to recognize their authority on July 13, 2026 to act "in the stead of and to the exclusion of" the fund's general partner. The Cayman ruling handed a win to a fund tied to Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev, the longtime investor whose feud with Apple Tree has run alongside the venture capital platform's chapter 11 case since it filed for bankruptcy on December 9, 2025. The Delaware court held a July 22, 2026 omnibus hearing on the recognition request and the debtors' third funding request; the docket does not yet reflect a ruling on either matter.
Apple Tree Life Sciences, Inc. and its affiliates—the New York City-based biotechnology venture capital platform that has invested over $2.5 billion across 45 companies since 1999—filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, case number 25-12177, before Judge Laurie Selber Silverstein. The filing came four days after the Fund obtained a $96.9 million judgment against its own primary investor, Rybolovlev's family office.
The filing centers on a governance dispute with Rybolovlev, whose family office Rigmora Holdings provided approximately 98% of the Fund's capital over a 13-year partnership. Apple Tree reported a fund valuation of approximately $6.5 billion at filing with effectively no secured debt. The bankruptcy court denied Rigmora's motion to dismiss on April 14, 2026, while granting Rigmora limited relief from the automatic stay to pursue narrow governance questions in the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands.
The bankruptcy triggered parallel proceedings in three courts: U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware, Delaware Court of Chancery, and the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands. Approximately 30 biotech portfolio companies—including clinical-stage firms developing treatments for cancer, genetic diseases, and infectious diseases—depend on continued Fund capital.
| Debtor(s) | Apple Tree Life Sciences, Inc. and 9 affiliated entities |
| Court | U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware |
| Case Number | 25-12177 |
| Petition Date | December 9, 2025 (initial); December 15, 2025 (portfolio companies) |
| Judge | Hon. Laurie Selber Silverstein |
| DIP Facility | None entered; proposed $65 million Oaktree DIP (Feb. 2026) superseded by court-authorized use of Delaware judgment proceeds |
| Stated Assets | $1 billion - $10 billion |
| Stated Liabilities | ~$200,000 |
| Fund Valuation | ~$6.5 billion (early 2025) |
| Cash on Hand | ~$17.3 million (at petition) |
| Delaware Chancery Judgment | $96,960,925.88 (against Rigmora LPs) |
| Unfunded PortCo Commitments | $221+ million |
Founding, Fund Structure, and Portfolio
Founding and track record. Apple Tree Partners (ATP) was founded in 1999 by Dr. Seth L. Harrison, who previously invested in life sciences as a venture partner at Sevin Rosen Funds and later as a general partner at Oak Investment Partners. The firm builds companies from pre-IP ideas through asset spinouts, investing from seed stage through IPO alongside a team of venture partners and executives-in-residence. ATP's debut fund, ATP I, ranked as the second-highest-returning fund globally for its 1999 vintage, and the Fund has made distributions to limited partners exceeding $2 billion.
Notable exits. The 2019 dual IPOs of Stoke Therapeutics (genetic disease therapies) and Akero Therapeutics (metabolic disease) turned a combined $150 million investment into a 4.9x return, or $736 million, by 2020. The 2018 sale of Syntimmune—acquired for $278 million upfront with potential milestone payments up to $603 million—provided an additional exit, alongside earlier sales of Gloucester Pharmaceuticals and Braeburn, the latter reaching a multibillion-dollar valuation after its Brixadi launch in 2023.
Current portfolio. As of the bankruptcy filing, ATP has invested in 45 companies, with 5 IPOs and 15 acquisitions completed, and roughly 30 active portfolio companies across preclinical, clinical, and commercial stages. Clinical-stage holdings include Ascidian Therapeutics (the first RNA exon editor to reach clinical trials, with FDA Fast Track designation for Stargardt disease), Marengo Therapeutics (FDA Fast Track for its anti-TCR Vβ antibody invikafusp), and Red Queen Therapeutics (pan-viral fusion inhibitors under a BARDA contract). Four portfolio companies—Apertor Pharmaceuticals, Initial Therapeutics, Marlinspike Therapeutics, and Red Queen Therapeutics—filed their own chapter 11 petitions on December 15, 2025, six days after the parent entities. Three more portfolio companies—Evercrisp Biosciences, Nine Square Therapeutics, and Nereid Therapeutics—later joined the jointly administered cases as debtors, with Nereid's case brought in through a January 2026 joint administration motion.
Fund structure. The Apple Tree investment platform operates through a layered structure spanning U.S. and Cayman Islands entities:
| Entity | Role | Jurisdiction |
|---|---|---|
| Apple Tree Life Sciences, Inc. | Management company | New York, USA |
| ATP Life Science Ventures, L.P. | The Fund (primary investment vehicle) | Cayman Islands (Exempted LP) |
| ATP III GP, Ltd. | General partner | Cayman Islands |
| Rigmora Biotech Investor One LP | Limited partner (~98% capital) | Cayman Islands |
| Rigmora Biotech Investor Two LP | Limited partner (included above) | Cayman Islands |
| Unicorn Biotech Ventures One Ltd | General partner of Rigmora entities | Cayman Islands |
The Rybolovlev Partnership and Its Breakdown
The backer. Dmitry Rybolovlev, a Russian businessman who built his fortune in the fertilizer industry as chairman of Uralkali, and Harrison—both medical doctors—formed Apple Tree Partners IV, L.P. (later renamed ATP Life Science Ventures, L.P.) in October 2012 through a Cayman Islands exempted limited partnership structure. The partnership allowed Rybolovlev or his family office to approve "budgets" for new portfolio company investments, and Rigmora's capital accounted for approximately 98% of all Fund contributions, concentrating economic interest in a single limited partner.
From the Ukraine invasion to a funding freeze. The partnership entered a dispute in late 2022 during a biotech market downturn and geopolitical instability following Russia's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine; Rigmora's enthusiasm for the partnership reportedly "disappeared entirely" after the invasion. Rigmora announced in September 2022 that only "austerity" budgets would be approved going forward, and scaled back capital injections through 2022-2024 under increasingly strict conditions. In June 2025, ATP sued in Delaware Court of Chancery over the withheld capital calls; Rigmora responded by filing a winding-up petition in the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands on June 6, 2025 and obtained an interim injunction against ATP there on August 18, 2025.
Although Rybolovlev is not sanctioned by the United States, United Kingdom, or European Union, he is sanctioned by Ukraine, and court filings describe KYC regulatory concerns and fears of potential future sanctions making banks, potential investors, and business partners reluctant to engage with ATP-related entities.
The $96.9 million judgment. On December 5, 2025—four days before the chapter 11 filing—Delaware Chancery Court Judge Kathaleen St. J. McCormick ordered Rigmora to pay $96,960,925.88 in response to capital calls issued by ATP on May 30, 2025 that totaled approximately $106 million. Rigmora had argued it had already invested approximately $2.7 billion, exceeding its commitment, but the court found Rigmora had "double-counted" some contributions and still had room to provide required funding; Judge McCormick stated that "the public interest strongly favors preserving potentially life-saving research programs." Rigmora indicated it would appeal.
Competing narratives. ATP has said Rigmora "purposely withheld funds" over 18 months and refused to approve any new budgets, framing the Delaware Chancery ruling as vindication and describing the Cayman winding-up petition as retaliatory; the company says chapter 11 gives it a forum to resolve the disputes while preserving portfolio company value, since portfolio companies otherwise face "imminent collapse" without funding. Rigmora, in turn, has accused ATP of "mismanagement and lack of probity" and said it "lost trust and confidence in ATP" over management failures; it has called the chapter 11 filing nothing more than a delay tactic and a "desperate attempt to avoid oversight" by the Cayman courts, arguing the Fund should instead be liquidated through the Cayman proceedings given the roughly $2.7 billion it says it has already invested.
Workforce and operational scale-down. During the 18-month funding gap, ATP scaled down operations, reducing its workforce from approximately 100 employees to 17 full-time staff at filing. The debtors' first-day declaration ties nearly 100 employee terminations directly to Rigmora's refusal to honor the May 30, 2025 capital calls, and describes partnership cash of $21,458,686 as of November 2025 against $501.2 million in aggregate Fund commitments. At the December 15, 2025 status conference, debtors' counsel noted: "One good fact, a little unusual for large chapter 11s, there is effectively no secured debt, so we don't really have any cash collateral issues."
Case Professionals and Key Timeline
Professionals. The Debtors retained Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP and Potter Anderson & Corroon LLP as co-counsel (Eric Winston and Katie Good, respectively), while B. Riley Advisory Services' Perry M. Mandarino was appointed Chief Restructuring Officer on December 10, 2025. Verita Global (formerly Kurtzman Carson Consultants) serves as claims and noticing agent. The Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors, appointed January 20, 2026, retained Cole Schotz P.C. (Daniel J. Harris) as counsel and Dundon Advisers LLC as financial advisor. Rigmora is represented by Debevoise & Plimpton LLP (Shannon Seldon) and Richards, Layton & Finger, P.A.; the portfolio company debtors are represented by Murphy & King, Professional Corporation.
At the December 17, 2025 first day hearing, the court entered joint administration, approved PII redaction, approved Verita Global as claims agent, granted interim approval of employee benefits, and approved a segregated bank account to hold the $96,960,925.88 Delaware Chancery judgment pending further proceedings; portfolio company funding relief remained pending at that point.
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| February 2022 | Russia invades Ukraine; Rigmora's engagement with the partnership begins to cool |
| September 2022 | Rigmora says only "austerity" budgets will be approved going forward |
| 2022-2024 | Rigmora scales back capital injections and imposes strict conditions |
| June 2025 | ATP sues in Delaware Court of Chancery over withheld capital calls |
| June 6, 2025 | Rigmora files winding-up petition in the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands |
| August 18, 2025 | Cayman court grants Rigmora an interim injunction against ATP |
| December 5, 2025 | Delaware Chancery Court awards ATP a $96.96 million judgment |
| December 9, 2025 | Apple Tree Life Sciences, ATP Life Science Ventures, and ATP III GP file chapter 11 |
| December 10, 2025 | Perry M. Mandarino appointed Chief Restructuring Officer |
| December 12-13, 2025 | Rigmora files sealed, then unsealed, motion to dismiss/abstain |
| December 15, 2025 | Portfolio companies (Apertor, Initial, Marlinspike, Red Queen) file chapter 11; status conference grants relief from stay for Cayman pre-trial proceedings |
| December 17, 2025 | First day hearing; joint administration order entered |
| December 19, 2025 | Segregated account order for Rigmora judgment funds; interim employee benefits order |
| December 23, 2025 | Portfolio company funding motion filed |
| January 6, 2026 | Rigmora files motion for relief from stay |
| January 15, 2026 | Section 341 meeting |
| January 20, 2026 | Omnibus hearing; final cash management and employee benefits orders entered; Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors appointed |
| January 23, 2026 | Cole Schotz appears as UCC counsel; Rigmora files amended motion to dismiss |
| January 24, 2026 | Final portfolio company secured loans order entered |
| February 13, 2026 | Debtors file proposed $65 million Oaktree DIP financing motion |
| April 14, 2026 | Court denies amended motion to dismiss; grants Rigmora limited stay relief on narrow Cayman governance issues |
| April 20, 2026 | Interim funding order authorizes use of Delaware judgment proceeds |
| April 24, 2026 | Court grants second funding order; Rigmora notices an appeal |
| June 17, 2026 | Court approves Exit Financing Solicitation Procedures |
| June 24, 2026 | Court finds Rigmora violated the automatic stay in Cayman proceedings |
| June 29, 2026 | Debtors file third funding motion seeking approximately $53 million |
| July 1, 2026 | Debtors file stay-violation supplement and certify $611,053.72 in requested sanctions |
| July 8-9, 2026 | Claims bar date notices served; interim order authorizes $2 million Aulos loan and continued portfolio funding |
| July 10, 2026 | Cayman Court enters order appointing independent officeholders |
| July 13, 2026 | Cayman order provided to counsel; officeholders move Delaware court for recognition |
| July 21, 2026 | Rigmora files limited objection to balance of third funding motion |
| July 22-24, 2026 | Omnibus hearing held on recognition and funding motions; no ruling yet entered |
DIP and Portfolio Funding Disputes
The Debtors' 13-week cash flow budget, referred to in the case record as Project Newton, projected the following through March 10, 2026:
| Category | Amount |
|---|---|
| Beginning Cash | ~$17.3 million |
| Assumed DIP Financing | $20,000,000 |
| Rigmora Judgment (receivable) | $96,960,926 |
| Portfolio Company Funding (outflow) | $9.3 million |
| Professional Fees (outflow) | $9 million |
| Bonuses (outflow) | $2.7 million |
| Projected Ending Cash (March 10, 2026) | $9,875,674 |
On February 13, 2026, the Debtors instead filed a motion for a $65 million DIP facility, a delayed-draw senior secured superpriority facility from funds managed by Oaktree Capital Management, with Oaktree Fund Administration LLC as administrative agent and Alter Domus (US) LLC as collateral agent. The motion proposed $17 million available upon an interim order and paired the facility with a plan timetable that set an interim DIP order by February 23, final DIP order by April 8, plan confirmation by June 22, and an effective date by July 5, 2026—milestones that were never met. Rigmora objected to the Oaktree DIP in March 2026 and advanced a competing funding proposal, and the facility was never entered.
Funding instead shifted to court-authorized use of the Delaware specific-performance proceeds. The April 20, 2026 interim funding order authorized $2.011 million for Aulos Bioscience and up to $9.647 million for Apple Tree Life Sciences management-company expenses under an emergency eight-week budget, while preserving Rigmora's objections. The court granted a second funding order on April 24 after rejecting Rigmora's jurisdictional, LPA-restriction, and business-judgment objections; Rigmora Biotech Investor One LP and Rigmora Biotech Investor Two LP appealed that order, challenging authorization to use the specific-performance account for portfolio funding, management-company expenses, and chapter 11 administrative expenses.
On June 29, 2026, the Debtors filed a third funding motion seeking approximately $53 million to cover the period from the week ending August 7, 2026 through the week ending January 1, 2027, including $2 million of emergency Aulos funding, $32.5895 million of portfolio-company funding, up to $6.5 million of management-company expenses, and up to $13.8 million of chapter 11 administrative expenses. A July 9, 2026 interim order authorized a $2 million secured loan to nondebtor Aulos Bioscience from the Specific Performance Account under the motion's emergency budget, without superseding the earlier first- and second-funding orders. Rigmora filed a limited objection to the balance of the third funding motion on July 21, 2026, asking the court to withhold broader relief until the newly appointed Cayman officeholders can assess the request. The motion was heard at the July 22, 2026 omnibus hearing alongside the officeholder recognition dispute, with no ruling yet reflected in the docket.
Dismissal Motion and Cayman Officeholder Dispute
Rigmora's amended motion to dismiss argued that the chapter 11 cases should be terminated because they were filed in bad faith solely to thwart the Cayman Islands winding-up proceedings, the Debtors are solvent with minimal traditional debt, there was no legitimate reorganization purpose, the Cayman court has exclusive jurisdiction over governance questions for the Cayman exempted limited partnership, and the bankruptcy court should abstain in favor of the Cayman proceedings. At the December 15 status conference, Judge Silverstein declined to rule on shortened time, stating: "Given the complicated nature of this matter as it's being described to me, I need briefing and I need time to consider the briefing on the motion to dismiss," and ordered a full briefing schedule rather than the expedited timeline Rigmora requested.
The bankruptcy court denied Rigmora's amended motion to dismiss on April 14, 2026, concluding that the Fund is eligible to be a chapter 11 debtor and that it filed the case in good faith. Judge Silverstein stated: "I am denying the motion to dismiss. I conclude that the Fund is eligible to be a debtor and that the Fund and the General Partner filed their cases in good faith." The court simultaneously granted Rigmora limited relief from the automatic stay—not the broad winding-up relief Rigmora sought—to litigate two narrow issues in the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands: whether the Rigmora LPs can prove they irretrievably lost trust and confidence in the general partner, and whether the Fund has lost its "substratum." If Rigmora prevailed on those issues, the order permitted it to seek appointment of joint official liquidators to act in the general partner's stead, but it did not authorize a full Cayman winding up of the partnership or a transfer of fund property, and the automatic stay otherwise remained in force. The Debtors subsequently asked the court to clarify or modify that order, proposing a three-director "Compromise Board" to head off further Cayman litigation.
By late May 2026, the general partner's Cayman counsel had indicated consent to Alexander Lawson and Barry Lynch of Alvarez & Marsal Cayman Islands serving as officeholders for the Fund. The Cayman Court entered an order on July 10, 2026 declaring that the Fund had lost its substratum and appointing Lawson and Lynch as joint officeholders to act in the stead of and to the exclusion of the general partner; the Cayman Court provided the order to counsel for the general partner and Rigmora on July 13, 2026, and it was reported the following day. Lawson and Lynch moved the Delaware bankruptcy court on July 13, 2026 to recognize their authority to act "in the stead of and to the exclusion of" the general partner, filing a companion motion to shorten notice that the court granted the next day. The notice of hearing set the matter for July 22, 2026. On July 16, 2026, the Debtors noticed depositions of both Lawson and Lynch ahead of the hearing.
The Cayman dispute also produced a stay-enforcement ruling. The Debtors represented in a July 1, 2026 supplement that the court found on June 24, 2026 that Rigmora violated the automatic stay by pursuing unauthorized relief in the Cayman proceedings, and a companion certification of damages filed the same day itemized $611,053.72 in requested compensatory costs—$434,966.85 for Quinn Emanuel, $106,499.50 for Potter Anderson, and $69,587.37 for Walkers (Cayman)—along with a request for punitive damages and prospective nonmonetary relief. The Debtors' filings describe the finding and the requested award; the reviewed docket record does not show an entered sanctions order.
The three-forum posture continues: dismissal denied and a stay-violation finding entered in the Delaware bankruptcy court, with the officeholder recognition motion, the sanctions request, and the balance of the third funding motion all pending after the July 22 omnibus hearing; the Delaware Chancery judgment on appeal; and the Cayman court's officeholder appointment now before the bankruptcy court for recognition.
Exit Financing Solicitation and Plan Sponsor Process
The Debtors began soliciting exit financing and a potential plan sponsor in parallel with the funding and stay-relief fights. They filed a motion for exit financing procedures on March 25, 2026; Rigmora objected, characterizing the process as a "sub rosa plan," and the Debtors filed a revised version of the procedures in response. The court approved the Exit Financing Solicitation Procedures on June 17, 2026, and prospective sponsors began filing notices of intent to participate the same day. Reporting in March 2026 indicated Apple Tree was asking the Delaware court to let it solicit at least $300 million to fund a chapter 11 exit, consistent with the scale of the financing process the Debtors have since pursued.
By July 8, 2026, the Debtors had noticed the dates and deadlines under the approved procedures, and claims agent Verita Global served claims bar date notices on July 9, 2026. No plan of reorganization, disclosure statement, or confirmation order had been filed to date; the exit financing process is the mechanism through which the Debtors expect a plan sponsor and exit capital to emerge.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why did Apple Tree file for bankruptcy if it's worth $6.5 billion?
This is a governance dispute, not traditional financial distress. Apple Tree filed chapter 11 amid a winding-up proceeding in the Cayman Islands brought by investor Rigmora, controlled by Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev. Rigmora allegedly withheld capital for 18+ months following Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The Fund has effectively no secured debt and minimal unsecured liabilities.
Who is Dmitry Rybolovlev?
Rybolovlev is a Russian businessman who built his fortune in the fertilizer industry as chairman of Uralkali. Since 2012, he has committed capital to Apple Tree through his family office Rigmora Holdings, which has provided roughly 98% of Fund capital.
What is the $96.9 million judgment about?
On December 5, 2025—four days before the bankruptcy filing—Delaware Chancery Court ordered Rigmora to pay $96,960,925.88 in response to capital calls issued by ATP in May 2025. The court found that Rigmora had "double-counted" some contributions and still had room to provide required funding. Rigmora has indicated it will appeal.
Who are Alexander Lawson and Barry Lynch?
Lawson and Lynch are restructuring professionals at Alvarez & Marsal Cayman Islands whom a Cayman Islands court appointed as independent officeholders for the Fund in July 2026. They have asked the Delaware bankruptcy court to recognize their authority to act in place of the general partner, a request the Debtors are contesting; the matter was heard at a July 22, 2026 omnibus hearing, with no ruling yet entered.
Why are there proceedings in three different courts?
This case involves: (1) U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware (chapter 11); (2) Delaware Court of Chancery (the $96.96 million capital call judgment); and (3) Grand Court of the Cayman Islands (Rigmora's winding-up petition and, since July 2026, the officeholder appointment). The Fund is a Cayman Islands exempted limited partnership, creating cross-border complexity as governance disputes over Cayman partnerships are typically resolved under Cayman law.
Who is the claims agent for Apple Tree Life Sciences?
Verita Global (formerly Kurtzman Carson Consultants, LLC) serves as the claims and noticing agent, a role anchored to the filed retention and noticing record, including the claims bar date notices served July 9, 2026.
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This article was researched and written with AI assistance, using court filings, public records, and news sources. AI-generated content can contain errors. Verify all information against primary sources before relying on it. This is not legal or financial advice. Read our full disclaimer.
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