Next Phase Newsletter

The corporate venture arm of a leading global company well known for its food products and amino science businesses with over $10B revenue seeks to create social and economic value for the global community. The group is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, with over 34,000 employees throughout the globe. The group is currently focused on 4 growth areas, which are healthcare, food & wellness, ICT, and green.

The CVC was launched in 2020 with the goal of furthering the development in the 4 aforementioned growth areas, and has a US office based in Palo Alto, CA. The firm seeks to make equity investments up to $4M in promising early-stage companies, in mostly Seed and Series A rounds, and will reserve funds for follow-on investments as well. The firm invests globally, with the CVC’s US operations seeking opportunities based in North America and Europe.

The firm is most interested in early-stage biotech companies developing therapeutics of novel modalities. In particular, the firm likes to see platform technologies. The firm is open to a wide range of modalities including small molecules, biologics (i.e. ADCs), oligonucleotides, cell and gene therapy. The firm is open to pre-clinical and early clinical stage companies.The firm is indication agnostic.

The firm is currently not seeking conventional medical device and diagnostics companies, but is open to exploring digital health technologies with a very opportunistic mandate.

The firm has no specific company or management team requirements. The firm is most interested in seeing novel science. The firm prefers to act as a co-investor and does not actively seek board representation.

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

A leading Spanish pharmaceutical company with a global presence is focused on the research, development, and manufacturing of prescription drugs, healthcare products, and animal nutrition. The company seeks to partner with early-stage companies to enrich its current internal drug discovery pipeline and is open to various partnership structures, including co-development, in-licensing, and acquisition. The firm also makes equity investments, and is open to both leading and co-investing. A board or observer seat may be considered on a case-by-case basis. The company is geographically agnostic and open to considering opportunities globally.

The company seeks early-stage assets for its drug discovery pipeline. While small molecules are a primary area of focus, the firm is open to different types of assets, including peptides, antibodies, and platform technologies. However, software and materials are out of scope. The firm is open to all indications and modalities. In terms of development phases, the company is interested in assets ranging from pre-clinical to Phase I.

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

A Norway based venture capital firm that focuses on green technology and life sciences is launching their fourth fund, which will be dedicated to life science and human medicine, the firm is actively seeking opportunities in the early-stage therapeutics space. The firm’s primary investment focus spans from seed to series A. While the firm prefers co-investment, it remains open to leading rounds and can facilitate their formation. The firm is an active investor and a board seat is typically required. Geographically, the firm is agnostic but maintains a focus on the Nordic region.

With life science and healthcare, the firm is focused on therapeutics, including traditional drugs and therapies as well as technologies that improves healthcare outcomes, such as therapy enabling technologies, health-economics related technologies, and relevant diagnostics and monitoring tech/devices. The firm is not interested in traditional medtech.

Within the therapeutics realm, the firm is interested in degenerative and regenerative medicines, immunology, autoimmune diseases, and therapies targeting neurodegenerative diseases like dementia and Parkinson’s. The firm is also interested in orphan drugs. The firm seeks first-in-class assets that are genuinely innovative and cater to a unique niche or less crowded space, and prefer this over best-in-class assets that operates in a space with fierce competition and has been well-established by large pharma players. The firm considers companies from preclinical to early clinical phases. The firm is open to engaging with entrepreneurs during the research or conceptual phases before firm incorporation, but investments are typically made post-incorporation.

The firm is an active investor that closely collaborates with its portfolio companies on both scientific and business/commercialization fronts. The firm is open to working with scientists or technical founders who may lack extensive experience in business and commercialization, especially in earlier phases such as research or pre-clinical stages. However, they does seek founders who envision the target product profile from the company’s inception and acknowledge the risks and challenges involved in reaching commercialization. Therefore, the firm seeks founders who are receptive to communication and open to considering advice and guidance from investors.

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

Established in 2023 and headquartered in California, A venture capital firm invests in Seed-Series B companies in pre-clinical and clinical stages. The firm’s current portfolio contains USA based companies, and they are looking to expand their investments into European companies. The firm is investing from its first fund valued at $100M. Depending on investment stage, the firm will invest between $1M-$10M. The firm is open to global investments.

The firm is focused on investing in neuroscience-based technology companies and will invest in medical devices and diagnostics. The firm does not invest in therapeutic (drug) companies. Indications of interest are focused on brain disorders, with a particular interest in neurodegenerative, neurodevelopmental, and neuropsychiatric conditions including Parkinson’s disease, autism spectrum disorder, and bipolar disorder. The firm applies a broad definition to the technology solution space for these clinical conditions to include therapeutic medical devices (non-invasive and invasive), data platforms, imaging platforms, drug-device combinations, therapy enabling tools, and research tools.

The firm is open to leading or co-investing. The firm prefers, however, to lead and will generally prefer a board seat.

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

A family office based in the US has a focus on the social impact as an overall investment mandate. The firm aims to fund cutting-edge therapeutics companies, and is open to both early and later-stage assets. The firm will invest globally. The firm has an accelerator arm, for which the firm is seeking companies with pre-clinical and clinical therapeutics with a minimum initial investment of $1M-$10M, with the possibility of follow-on investments. The firm itself generally invests in companies with lead assets in Phase I – III clinical trials, and the amount of the allocation is based on the raise and pre-money valuation of the company. 
 
The firm is looking for therapeutics companies, with a particular interest in biologics assets such as antibody-based technologies, cell and gene therapies. The firm mandate focused on regenerative and personalized medicine in oncology, neurodegenerative, orphan, and rare disease applications. 
 
The firm will only consider companies that have more than two assets in the pipeline and experienced management team. 

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

A venture capital fund based in the US is currently making investment out of a $150-million-dollar fund. The firm is looking to make 15 additional investments with allocations generally in the $1-$3 million range. The firm is looking to make equity investments and is open to investing in companies globally. 
 
The firm is interested in therapeutic companies developing small molecules for inflammation, infectious and autoimmune disease and stays away from biologics, cell and gene therapy. The firm is also interested in digital health and mobile health services, AI in healthcare, B2B2C medical devices. The firm is looking for companies with some level of proof-of-concept data either in vivo or in vitro up until Phase II of clinical trials. As for digital health, the firm is looking for scalable SAAS models, novel types of healthcare delivery, point-of-care diagnostics and patient’s self-management tools. 
 
The firm is willing to work with incomplete management teams, often working with IP that has just recently spun out of a university. The firm is willing and able to act as a lead or co-investor in financing rounds. 

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

A venture capital firm looks to participate in pre-seed to pre-IPO funding, and will typically make between 15 and 20 new investments per year and will typically make follow up investments in existing profile companies. Typical investments range between USD $100k-30M. The firm will utilize various capital structures as determined on a case-by-case basis including equity investments, debt, convertible loans, and SAFEs. The firm invests primarily in companies in the Boston area, but open to opportunities outside of the region. 
 
The firm will make investments across all modalities within the medical devices, diagnostics, and digital health sectors. The firm has made and will consider investments in therapeutics as well but prefers to focus on platform technologies. The firm will invest in therapeutics that are pre-NDA as well as medical and diagnostic technology that is in development and clinical. The firm will invest in all classes of medical devices including Class II (510k) and Class III (PMA). The firm is disease agnostic and will consider companies across all indications. 
 
The firm will work with both experienced and inexperienced management teams but tends to avoid management teams led by a journeyman CEO. The firm will participate as a lead investor, co-investor, and follow-on investor. The firm will take an active board seat if acting as the lead investor but tends to take a board observer seat if acting as a co-investor. The firm will not take any board seat if acting as a follow-on investor. 

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