Hot Mandate: Investment Arm of Hospital System Interested In Novel Applications in Digital Health

A investment arm of a non-profit hospital system manages a $15M fund and usually writes checks in the $1 million range. The firm will participate mostly in Series A and B rounds but is open to considering earlier stage, non-revenue generating companies with highly disruptive technologies. Currently, the firm is focused only on USA-based investment opportunities.

The firm is seeking digital health companies with technologies that can provide significant value to their hospital system. The firm is most interested in those that address their key organization priorities, which include (1) virtualization of care (i.e. telehealth), (2) operational efficiency, (3) patient and clinician experience of care. The organization is also interested in novel applications of technologies such as AI that may not impact healthcare in the short term, but may have disruptive potentials in the future. The organization is not interested in therapeutics, medical devices, or diagnostics companies.

The firm is looking to work with companies with experienced management teams. The firm does not act as a lead investor and only seeks to co-invest.

If you are interested in more information about this investor and other investors tracked by LSN, please email 4dmeetsai@lifesciencenation.com.

Hot Mandate: China-Based VC Strongly Interested In Growth-Stage Healthcare IT and AI & Big Data Applications in Life Sciences

Founded in 2012 and based in Shenzhen, China, a venture capital backed by 79 local corporations manages 150 million CNY fund (~21 million in USD). The firm typically takes exit in 5 to 7 years after investing. While the allocation size can largely vary, the firm mainly focuses on growth-stage companies that already have clinical data or got FDA/CFDA approved.

The firm has strong interests in novel diagnostics technologies, especially IVD, and they pay close attention to healthcare IT, and AI & big data applications in life science. The third hot spot for the frim is medical devices, especially surgical robots. The novel service platform with the technologies of cell or gene area. The firm has a strong focus on companies that can provide solutions on cardiovascular disease, oncology, orthopedics, central nervous system disorders, and Endocrine system disorders.

The firm invests globally but prefers companies with a Chinese angle and the series entrepreneurs.

If you are interested in more information about this investor and other investors tracked by LSN, please email 4dmeetsai@lifesciencenation.com.

Hot Mandate: Corporate Venture Capital Invests in Customer-Centered Health Strategies, Including AI Applications in Healthcare

A venture capital arm of a multination corporation has several offices in the USA including Boston, MA and Menlo Park, CA. The firm has approximately $2B AUM and has invested $200M in 40 companies in 2016. The investment size varies, depending on the opportunity. The firm is actively seeking new investment opportunities in the life sciences and will look globally.

The firm invests in customer-centered health strategies, which may include mobile health IT, digital health, and artificial intelligence applied to healthcare. The firm is also interested in therapeutics, particularly synthetic biology, nanotechnology, and gene therapy. The firm is opportunistic in terms of stage of development.

The firm primarily invests in life science companies with a strong and experienced management team. The firm usually takes a board seat.

If you are interested in more information about this investor and other investors tracked by LSN, please email 4dmeetsai@lifesciencenation.com.

Hot Mandates: Silicon Valley-based Family Office

A private/family investment vehicle based in Silicon Valley, CA. The firm makes seed investments via an accelerator arm, and also has a stage-agnostic fund. Seed investments are typically $25,000-100,000, and the firm is capable of making larger investments via the fund. The firm also provides a three-month accelerator program, and works with partners in the healthcare industry to strategically invest in startups. The firm will consider investing in companies worldwide.

The firm is interested in investing in digital health and medical technology and invests in subsectors in which the firm and its industry partners can apply expertise; within medical devices, typically this means products that have a significant software component, including biosensors, wearables and health monitoring devices. Within digital health, the firm’s interests include the following areas: Care Management, Hospital Workflow, Diagnostics, A.I. & Big Data, Population Health, Patient Adherence, Telemedicine. The firm is interested in both consumer applications and enterprise software. The firm works with strategic partners (including major pharma companies and health systems) to identify focus areas for innovation.

The firm prefers to invest in companies with at least two co-founders, one with technical expertise and one with business expertise; for the accelerator program in particular, the firm prefers to work with companies that have a technical expert co-founder. In addition to due diligence on the management team and technology, the firm also considers a product’s potential market opportunity.

If you are interested in more information about this investor and other investors tracked by LSN, please email LHI@lifesciencenation.com.

Hot Mandates: California-based Foundation

A Mountain View, CA-based foundation provides grants for research into rejuvenation biotechnologies that prevent or reverse age-related tissue damage. Historically grants have ranged from $40,000 to $200,000 although this range may change in the future. Grants are available to researchers worldwide. The foundation normally requests that grants not be used to cover overhead/facilities costs. At present, 15 projects are being supported.

The foundation is focused on projects that counter aging by applying one of seven areas of biotechnology; stem cells (induced pluripotent stem cells), gene therapy (specifically WILT; whole-body interdiction of lengthening telomeres), allotopic expression of proteins generated by mitochondrial genes, immunotherapies that target anergic killer T-cells or adipose tissue microphages, tissue engineering to repair collagen crosslinks and damage to elastin structures, antibodies/vaccines that target amyloid, and enzymes that target lysosomal waste. Only biotechnology projects are considered; the foundation does not give grants to medtech or bioinformatic projects in these fields.

As most of these fields of rejuvenation biotechnology are at early stages of understanding, the foundation primarily funds preclinical projects where the impact of their funding will be highest. However, the foundation does not rule out the possibility of supporting a clinical trial for a project

within the field of rejuvenation biotechnology provided that project is not a cell therapy or tissue engineering project.

Historically the foundation grants have mostly been provided to academic/non-profit researchers but the foundation is also open to working with commercial companies. When making funding decisions the foundation puts significant weight on the investigators’ publication records. The foundation does not normally seek any management/advisory involvement in a project. The foundation encourages sponsored investigators to collaborate with each other where synergy exists between projects.

If you are interested in more information about this investor and other investors tracked by LSN, please email LHI@lifesciencenation.com.

Hot Mandates: Chicago-Based Venture Capital Investor

A venture capital firm based in Chicago, IL focused on early-stage health technology investments with a consumer-focus. The firm is looking for companies with solutions that drive consumer engagement and health accountability. (these do not have to sell D2C, most of their companies do not) The firm manages over $100M in capital with initial investments of $1,000,000 to $5,000,000. The firm is primarily thesis-focused and invests from Seed stage to Series B, with a focus just at or before the A round.

The firm is seeking digital health companies focused on the empowering consumers to be better stewards of their health and their healthcare expenditures. Accordingly, the firm is not interested in technology that solve problems solely within payers and providers, such as billing, care coordination for hospitals, or EHR platforms. The firm is indication agnostic, though has interest in chronic illnesses, social determinants, behavioral health, and personalized care among others.

The firm does not have set management team requirements. The firm will play a very active role post-investment, traditionally by taking board seats, providing key sales introductions, assisting with scaling, hiring, and providing network support.

If you are interested in more information about this investor and other investors tracked by LSN, please email LHI@lifesciencenation.com.

Hot Investor Mandate: Healthcare Focused Fund Invests Up to $8M in USA-Based Technologies Across All Life Science Sectors, Including Healthtech

A specialized healthcare and life sciences investment firm with over a half-billion dollars in capital under management and expects to close their next fund in 2021. The firm invests in early-stage companies (Seed/Series A) developing innovative new medical technologies, biotechnologies, and digitally-enabled healthcare services. The firm generally invests $4-8 million of equity capital per round and up to $10-20 million over the investment life. The firm is actively investing and will make 3-5 investments in 2021. The firm focuses on USA-based opportunities.

The firm is currently looking for companies developing Medical Devices, Therapeutics, Diagnostics, and Healthcare IT products. For medical devices and therapeutics, the firm is open to the full spectrum of subsector and indication and will consider companies developing orphan indications. In HealthTech, the firm is interested in AI-enabled clinical/diagnostic/workflow platforms but will also consider other companies that fall into the broader Healthcare IT space as well, including mobile health companies developing consumer-facing apps. They will consider companies with proprietary platform technologies as well as single/multiple asset companies.

As an early-stage investor, the firm invests almost exclusively in pre-revenue companies, with significant ownership opportunities. They look for experienced management teams, help build the team, and require a seat on the company’s board.

If you are interested in more information about this investor and other investors tracked by LSN, please email mandates@lifesciencenation.com.