Next Phase Newsletter

By Erika Wu, Business Development Manager, Global Tech Hubs, LSN

The National Institute of Health (NIH) is working with Life Science Nation‘s RESI conference during JPM Healthcare Week 2024 to feature 10 startups in the Innovator’s Pitch Challenge (IPC). This long-term partnership between the NIH and LSN expands broader than the RESI conferences. In September 2022, NIH’s National Institute on Aging (NIA) invited 40+ life science entrepreneurs from their Healthy Aging Start-Up Challenge to participate in LSN’s entrepreneurial educational across two digital and two in-person sessions. These entrepreneurs were taught how to manage their global investor target lists and fundraising campaigns and engaged in interactive sessions to practice their tagline and elevator pitches. These entrepreneurs continued to attend RESI throughout 2022 and 2023 to meet with other CEOs, investors, and strategic partners, and a new cohort from NIH will be participating in the Innovator’s Pitch Challenge (IPC) at RESI JPM 2024. The excitement to partner again and deepen community involvement reflects a growing awareness of the transformative power that collaboration can have on startups in the early-stage life science arena.

From the National Institute of Health: NIH Is the largest funder of life science research and development in the world. In 2023, America’s SEED fund (the Small Business Programs) at NIH supported the development of nearly 1,400 products with over $1.3 billion of non-dilutive funding and a strong suite of commercialization assistance programming.  NIH’s portfolio includes all technology types, from research tools to diagnostics to therapeutic solutions, addressing all aspects of human health. 

At RESI JPM in San Francisco, 10 of the most innovative small businesses from the NIH portfolio will highlight their life science solutions, from at-home or remote diagnostic and monitoring solutions to improving the function of our most basic organ systems and organelles. Each of these companies has received direct mentoring from an NIH Entrepreneur in Residence, and several have received regulatory or reimbursement consultations from NIH’s SEED (Small business Education and Entrepreneurial Development) office.  

By Momo Yamamoto, Investor Research Analyst, LSN

Life Science Nation(LSN) recently hosted a webinar with three investors that will be attending RESI for the first time at the upcoming RESI JPM, in-person on Tuesday, January 9 at the Marines’ Memorial Hotel followed by virtual partnering, January 10-11. LSN is pleased to introduce James Feng, Partner of MSA Capital, Leah Villegas, Managing Partner of Aquillius Ventures, and Matias Serebrinsky, Co-Founder and General Partner of PsyMed Ventures. This webinar provides insight into the different focuses in early-stage innovation spaces.

 Life Science Nation’s research team works continuously not only to add new investor attendees to our RESI conferences but also integrate them into our early-stage ecosystem. These investors will be part of our investor database and we look forward to fostering relationships between them and the companies in our ecosystem that are a fit for their investment mandate. PsyMed Ventures joins RESI with a lens on mental health and more specifically “frontier technologies” and how they define this concept.  MSA Capital is an international firm with an arm in healthcare based in China and investing in seed to series B, writing checks between $1-25M. James, with MSA, provides insight into their interest in early-stage companies tackling aging-related diseases. Aquillius Ventures is the investment arm of their innovation hub located in San Diego, and is looking to connect with innovative biotech and medical device companies. Their main fund does not require companies to go through their accelerator program and offers a wide range of resources. 

Thank you to these investors for their time and informative discussion on what they hope to accomplish next month at RESI JPM and what they are looking for when building relationships with early-stage startups. We are excited to have them join us at RESI. Click here to access the full video.  

Leah Villegas, Managing Partner, Aquillius Ventures

Aquillius Ventures is the venture arm of Aquillius, an innovation hub headquartered in San Diego, CA for life science, medtech, and technology companies. The firm invests in Pre-Seed and Seed stage biotech, device, and ag-tech companies in the U.S.

James Feng, Partner, MSA Capital

MSA Capital is a global investment firm founded in 2014 and headquartered in Beijing, China that focuses on private venture and growth assets. The firm manages over $2B USD and invests in highly innovative and disruptive companies in the biotechnology, enterprise-facing core technology, and consumer sectors.

Matias Serebrinsky, Co-Founder & General Partner, PsyMed Ventures

PsyMed Ventures is a venture capital fund founded in 2020 and headquartered in San Francisco, CA. The firm invests in Pre-Seed and Seed life science and healthcare companies that focus on mental health and wellness.

Joey Wong, Senior Investor Research Analyst, Hong Kong BD, LSN

RESI JPM 2024 is less than a month away. For this highly anticipated conference, LSN’s Investor Research Team has curated a lineup of 7 panels covering a wide range of topics relevant to early-stage investments and innovations.

Some of these panels will highlight specific leading or emerging sectors/ indications, such as Early-Stage Therapeutics, Medical Devices and Mental and Behavioral health, aiming to discuss cutting edge innovations, latest investment trends and the future outlook in these areas. Other panels will focus on different types of investors or strategics partners, such as Big Pharma, Health System Partners, Cross Border Investments and Family Offices, featuring active investors from corresponding groups to shed light on their investment approaches and strategies, recent deals or activities, the roles their play in the ecosystem, and how companies can seek to work with group like theirs, etc.

We are honored to be joined by a diverse group of panelists from around the globe, each bringing unique backgrounds and experiences. Through organizing these panels, our goal is to foster communications, bridge the gap between entrepreneurs and investors/strategic partners and assist founders and CEOs in navigating their fundraising and business development journey in this highly competitive landscape. If you are around for JPM, don’t miss the opportunity to hear from and connect with seasoned investors and executives at these RESI panels!

Here are the speakers for RESI JPM 2024:

Brent Ahrens General Partner Canaan Partners	Jing Bao Partner Shanghai Healthcare Capital	Tara Bishop Founder & Managing Director Black Opal Ventures
Scarlett Chen Managing Partner Verge Health Tech Fund	William Dai Founding Partner ShangBay Capital	Jakob Dupont Executive Partner, Private Equity Sofinnova Investments
Alex Fair Managing Partner Medstartr Ventures	Marissa Fayer U.S. Partner Goddess Gaia Ventures	Les Funtleyder Healthcare Portfolio Manager E Squared Capital
Viral Gandhi Principal KCK MedTech	Lindsay Hoover Managing Partner JLS Fund	Jochen Hurlebaus Head of Digital Health Innovation Roche Diagnostics
Marc Jones CEO Altoida Inc	Ekaterine Kortkhonjia Sr. Director, Early Innovation Partnering Johnson & Johnson Innovation	Michael Langer Founder & Managing Partner T.Rx Capital
Linda Li Partner, Digital Health Cleveland Clinic Ventures	James Mayer Partner, CABHI Ventures Centre for Aging + Brain Health Innovation (CABHI)	Jeffrey Moore President MP Healthcare Venture Management (MPH)
Miguel Moreno Garcia Director of Research SENS Research Foundation	Ahmed Mousa Business Development Executive Tamer Group	Priya Oberoi Managing General Partner Goddess Gaia Ventures
John Pennett Angel Investor Mid Atlantic Bio Angels	Rachel Rea Senior Director, Business Development Stryker	Liridon Rrushaj Director, Venture Investments OSF Ventures
Dennis Sacha Principal IAG Capital Partners	Diana Saraceni Founder, Managing Director Panakes Partners	Matias Serebrinsky Co-Founder & General Partner PsyMed Ventures
Ashim Subedee Director, Catalyst Office Division of Research Innovation and Ventures (DRIVe)	Prasad Sunkara Board of Directors NuFund Venture Group	Lauren Tyra Chief Scientific Officer Green Park & Golf Ventures
Akili Wallace Director and Deal Lead in Business Development Transactions Amgen	Tyler Wanke Investor Wanke Family Office	Anita Watkins Managing Director Rex Health Ventures
Dana Watt Principal Breakout Ventures	Tad Weems Managing Director Agilent Technologies	Andrew Wong Global Head of Bayer CoLabs Bayer
	Shann Yu Associate Director AbbVie Ventures