Category: Hot Mandates

Hot Life Science Investor Mandate 3: Opportunistic European VC Actively Seeking New Investments

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A venture capital firm with several offices worldwide is based primarily in Europe, and co-manages an early-stage fund focused on academic spinouts and seed investments in Europe. The firm has approximately €500M AUM, and is currently managing four active funds. The firm makes equity investments in life science and biomedical technology companies at all stages of development. However, the VC prefers late stage preclinical or early stage clinical for therapeutics and diagnostics and medical devices that are close to market approval. The typical investment per round is €3M to €7M. The firm looks for companies that are based in the US, Canada, and Europe. They are actively screening new investment opportunities.

This group is fairly opportunistic in the life sciences space, but generally targets therapeutics and diagnostics, medical devices, and biopharmaceuticals. In therapeutics, the firm focuses on drug development and has no specific preference in indication. In medical devices, they have a special focus on interventional devices in cardiology, gastroenterology and pulmonology that are close to or on the market approval. However, the firm is equally opportunistic in other subsectors and indications for medical devices, but all with a therapeutic focus.

The VC invests in companies at all stages of their development. For drug development, they invest from late preclinical to mid-stage clinical development. Sometimes they will consider companies with products on the market. The firm seeks a company with a strong and experienced management team or technical experts in the relevant technology.

Hot Life Science Investor Mandate 1: Family Office to Make Several Investments in Coming Months

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A family office based in the Eastern US manages 4 funds for a total of approximately $400 million in assets under management. They are currently investing out of their 4th fund, which has $100 million focused exclusively on the life sciences. The office looks to provide up to $5 million of preferred equity capital in the initial investment round, and up to $10 million over the life of the investment. They are very flexible in terms of period to exit, but generally look to exit in around 5 years. They plan to make 2-3 investments over the next 6-9 months and will consider companies globally.

The family office is currently looking for companies developing Therapeutics, Diagnostics and Medical Technology. Within therapeutics, which is their primary focus, companies with an asset in Phase II are currently of most interest. However, they will consider companies with assets as early as 2 years away from human trial data. Within diagnostics, they generally require that the diagnostic be at the commercial stage or have significant positive clinical data. For medical technology they require that the device have some in-human data before being considered for investment. Also, the firm is not interested in medtech companies developing devices that are incrementally improved versions of devices already on the market, groundbreaking technologies and platforms are the firms focus in this area.

Hot Life Science Investor Mandate 2: Virtual Pharma Could Acquire Three Companies Within a Year

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A virtual pharmaceutical development company based in the Western US is looking to in-license pharmaceutical assets and bring them through clinical proof of concept, and then sell them to large pharmaceutical companies. The firm is looking for candidates that require less than 3.5 years and $15 million to human proof of concept. They also look to invest in assets – not companies – and as such, they are able to consider assets developed by companies anywhere in the world. The firm is currently positioned to acquire up to 3 assets in the next 6-9 months.

The company is looking to in-license both small and large molecules in either the pre-clinical stage or Phase I of clinical development. For assets in the pre-clinical stage, the firm is not interested in lead optimization projects, and requires that the asset be within at least 12-18 months of entering Phase I. The firm’s current pipeline includes therapeutics targeting the indications of Dermatology, Type 2 Diabetes, Pulmonary Disorders.

The company looks to take a majority equity stake in its chosen assets, leaving the remainder of equity in the hands of the originator.

Hot Life Science Investor Mandate 3: Venture Arm Focuses on Companies Developing New Drugs, Devices

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The corporate venture arm of a larger foundation based in Europe has approximately $35 billion in AUM, provides (equity only) seed and venture capital to development stage companies, and also takes significant ownership positions in well-established companies within life science and biotechnology.

The firm will invest at any stage of development – seed, venture, and growth. They also make late-stage investments in public/private companies with a positive cash flow, and can allocate up to $40M or more depending on specific cases, but generally allocate between $5M and $20M. The firm seeks companies that are based in North America and Europe, but has no current mandate for the number of allocations it plans to make.

The venture arm is opportunistic in the life sciences space. Specifically, they focus on companies that specialize in the development of new drugs, new procedures for diagnosis and control of diseases, development of medical devices and instruments, and industrial biotechnology. They are very opportunistic in terms of subsectors and indications.

Currently, this particular firm is active in companies developing therapeutics and diagnostics targeting cardiovascular diseases, infectious diseases, immune disorders, diseases of the nervous system, mental and behavioral disorders, and cancer. Additionally, they have invested in companies developing therapeutics based on small molecules and antibodies. The firm has also made venture investments in companies developing medical technology in the area of reusable instruments, wound care, single use devices, therapeutic radiation devices, and active implantable devices.

 

Hot Life Science Investor Mandate 1: Corporate Venture Capital Backed by Large Parent Company Seeks Targets with Computational Components

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The corporate venture capital arm of a larger parent company, which is organized as an evergreen VC fund with one LP, makes equity investments in life science companies at various stages of development, and is likely to make about 3 allocations to life science companies in the next 6-9 months. Investments are made from very early, seed stages of development through late stages, and are therefore highly varied in size. The CVC arm invests only in privately held companies.

Preferring to invest in developments at the intersection of life science and technology, the firm is interested in medical technologies that have a significant computational element. This includes bioinformatic fields such as genomic diagnostics or tools, and various subsectors of the healthcare IT space including sophisticated analytics, natural language analysis, medical records management, enterprise software for hospitals, clinical trials management, and data mining tools for pharmaceutical firms.

The arm is also interested in investing in drug discovery platform technologies. In this area, the firm prefers to invest at an early preclinical stage (prior to lead optimization). In general, they are agnostic as to whether a company has reached the prototype stage of product development prior to investment. They do not invest in direct-to-consumer products such as health monitoring wearables or apps.

Hot Life Science Investor Mandate 2: Government Organization Moving Large Amounts of Capital Over Next 6-9 Months

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A Government Sponsored Organization based in the Western US is capable of investing up to $20 million to companies initially and can invest greater amounts over the life of the investment. The firm provides strictly non-dilutive funding in the forms of debt, research grants and forgivable loans. Being motivated partially by the economic development of its home state, the firm is most interested in companies located there, but will consider other investments inside the US as well. For companies outside of the state that the firm chooses to allocate to, being able/willing to set up some business within their borders is ideal. The firm plans to allocate to 10-15 companies in the next 6-9 months.

The organization is currently looking for companies developing therapeutics that in some way trigger or involve human stem cells. This includes cell/gene therapy, regenerative medicine, small/large molecules and biologics. The firm is completely open in terms of indication and will consider companies targeting orphan indications. The firm is looking to allocate to companies with an asset in Pre-Clinical up to Phase II of clinical trials.

Hot Life Science Investor Mandate 3: Life Science-Focused VC has Wide Range of Investment Interests

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A life science-focused Venture Capital firm based in Canada is currently investing from two new funds totaling more than $150 million of new capital under management. The firm’s second fund is more than $100 million of that total, and they are currently looking to invest in companies across North America.

The firm typically makes initial investments ranging from $1-$5 million of equity, and looks to invest $8-$12 million over the lifetime of the investment. The firm plans to make 4-6 investments over the next 12 months.

Through its second fund, the VC is currently looking for companies developing Therapeutics, Medical Devices, and Healthcare IT. The firm has a special interest in immunology, inflammation, cell therapy, vaccines and protein-based therapies, although the firm will also consider other small molecule and biologics therapies in other areas. The firm is specifically looking for companies with assets in phase I and II of clinical trials.

In the medical devices space the firm is opportunistic in terms of device type, but also requires some in-human data to be evaluated for investment. In the past, the firm has invested in devices for cardiology, obesity, medical imaging, and others. The VC will invest opportunistically in the healthcare IT space, particularly in products that help make healthcare systems more efficient.

The firm is looking to invest in companies that are pre-revenue located throughout the United States and Canada. The firm does not look to take an active role on the management team, but does look to take a board seat.