A venture studio and accelerator that was created as a joint venture between a traditional VC firm and CRO identifies promising early-stage technologies with academic institutional foundations that are not yet ready for institutional investment. The group provides hands-on operational expertise and up to $5M of funding per company to help translate these innovations into viable startups.
In their model, the institutional principal investigators are positioned as company founders, while the group’s CEO and CSO serve as interim executives to help guide early development in conjunction with the broader team. Once the company demonstrates sufficient progress, the VC firm that backs the group would plan to lead a Series A financing.
The group is evolving its traditional venture studio approach to work with early-stage companies that have already been incorporated, and which would benefit from the same operational and strategic support and funding to accelerate achievement of proof of concept and enable access to VC funding or pharma partnerships. The group is currently focused on technologies and companies that are based in the U.S.
The group focuses exclusively on traditional therapeutics. Although modality-agnostic, the group prefers traditional modalities such as small molecules and biologics. In terms of indication areas, there is particular interest in oncology, kidney disease, fibrosis, immunology and inflammation, and cardiovascular disease. However, the group remains open to other opportunities that address compelling unmet needs and present a sizeable market opportunity. The group targets early programs and considers in-clinic assets to be too late-stage for its investment model.
If you are interested in more information about this investor and other investors tracked by LSN, please email salescore@lifesciencenation.com.
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