Next Phase Newsletter

Ankit Agarwal

– By Bryanna Allison, Business Development Manager, LSN

Bryanna Allison

Companies frequently ask me the question: does RESI work? We at LSN believe strongly that companies can successfully complete their fundraising if they follow our advice, but you don’t have to take our word for it: I recently spoke to Ankit Agarwal, CEO of Imbed Biosciences, who was eager to share his story of how he used RESI to raise his Series A.

Bryanna Allison: Congratulations on raising your Series A! Why are you so excited to share your story?

Ankit Agarwal: Thank you! I wanted to do this interview to encourage other fundraising CEOs – it’s a long and difficult process. It’s important not to get discouraged, despite how long it may be taking and how many noes you may hear. I found that the key was reaching out to multiple types of investors, and to meet with as many relevant investors as possible. This is why RESI was so helpful –it gave me access to hundreds of investors in one room. Beyond that, RESI is like a community for early stage life sciences; I had the chance to meet fellow fundraising CEOs facing the same challenges, allowing us to make friends and compare notes.

Over the course of a year, I attended 4 RESIs and was selected twice for the Innovation Challenge. I had a lot of meetings and got a lot of noes before I started hearing yeses. My advice is to make sure you are consistent and to get yourself out there as much as possible.

BA: How much did you raise for your Series A?

AA: Our goal for the Series A was to raise $5M in capital. We closed $4M in investments and a $1.5M grant from the NIH for a total of $5.5M in capital.

BA: Did you meet your investors for the first time at RESI?

AA: Yes, we did! But, we were very diligent about reaching out to hundreds of investors, both at RESI and in between conferences, making sure that they were relevant to our technology. We worked hard to get 12-16 meetings scheduled for every RESI we attended, and we got a lot of feedback that helped us refine our message and pitch. We also went into deeper diligence with several investors that did not end up leading to funding, but provided invaluable feedback and connections to the right investors.

BA: How long did your fundraise take?

AA: Before RESI, I was on the road for about 9 months to fundraise. From the initial meeting at RESI, it took about 10 months to finalize the deal, with a lot of back and forth. RESI is like the Disneyland® of early stage investors – it cut out so much time and money that I would have spent to meet with that many investors if I had continued fundraising as I did before attending RESI.

BA: With regards to the fundraising process, was it familiar to you? Do you have prior experience as a startup CEO and with a successful fundraise?

AA: This is my first company – the technology behind Imbed’s products came out of my post-doctoral research at the University of Wisconsin. This was my second round of fundraising for Imbed, the first being three separate seed rounds, raising a total of $3M, over a 4 year span.

BA: How many meeting requests did you send out in the RESI partnering platform?

AA: I sent 100+ requests through the partnering platform at each RESI I attended. I also reached out to investors that were a close, but not perfect, fit, because I wanted to make sure that I cast a wide net, in case they were interested. In addition to the meetings at RESI, this led to around 50 pitches outside of RESI with investors I met at the conference. I met with at least 100 investors over the course of 10 months.

BA: As a first time CEO, how did you prepare for your meetings?

AA: I used all of the resources LSN and RESI made available, and I followed your directions. I used the templates you provided for my outgoing message on the partnering platform, I sent out 100+ meeting requests to the relevant investors, as you recommended. In all, the process was easy and straightforward.

BA: What did you include in your message that was of the most interest to investors?

AA: Having a good pitch deck was key. Also, discussing our path forward, including the strategy for raising our Series B helped. This allowed me to clarify that this was not our last capital raise, that there was an opportunity for follow-on investments, as well as mentioning the bigger value inflection point down the line.

BA: Did you present your pitch deck at the meeting, and did you bring any additional material with you?

AA: I sent the investors an email before the meetings with the pitch deck and executive summary attached. During the meeting, I showed the device and clinical cases using our products. At the end, I gave them a brochure with the information.

BA: How many meetings do you think you had before closing the round?

AA: There were quite a few. That was the benefit of RESI: that I had a lot of meetings in one day. Even if I received 15 noes that day, it was still productive because this allowed me to screen potential investors before spending money to travel and meet them all individually.

BA: What is the biggest piece of advice you would give to companies attending RESI to fundraise?

AA: I would tell them to believe in the RESI process and follow your advice on how to make the most of it. They should really try to fill in those 16 slots, but should not be disappointed if all of those meetings end up not being a fit. They should look at it as a positive: they still met and screened out 16 investors – who knows how long that could have taken outside of RESI if they had to try to meet with them one at a time.

I viewed this as a personal challenge: as a first time entrepreneur, I wanted to see if I could close this round myself. I followed your recommendations by the book, and it worked! Using RESI to fundraise is an easy and elegant process.

BA: Thank you for sharing your story. Good luck moving forward!

About Imbed Biosciences: Imbed Biosciences is a privately held biotech company registered with FDA as a medical device manufacturer with an ISO 13485 certified quality management system. The company has a portfolio of products in development based on its patented and FDA-cleared Microlyte^® technology to combat local pain and infections in complex wounds such as burns, chronic ulcers, surgical wounds, epidermolysis bullosa, and colorectal surgeries. A portion of Imbed’s research funding comes from the National Institute of Arthritis, Musculoskeletal, and Skin Diseases (NIAMS).

By Jessica Yang, Investor Research Analyst, LSN

RESI Europe in Paris will feature two tracks of investor panels that include specialized topics relevant to current industry trends, such as Seed Funds, Big Pharma, AI in Healthcare and Oncology Innovation. RESI Panels are focused on an audience of entrepreneurs seeking to raise funding and make strategic relationships. LSN recruits panelists from our extensive network of investors in different categories, who are actively looking to make investments in early-stage life science and healthcare sectors. The panelists will have advice to share with startup CEOs on how to get through the process, get into dialogue, and secure funding or make a deal.

If you’re interested in hearing and meeting active industry experts, it’s not too late to register now!

Here are some of the panelists who will be joining our panels at RESI Europe in Paris:

Alexandra Bause Partner Apollo Health Ventures	Alizée Cres Principal BD & Strategy MITG EMEA Medtronic	Yuwen Liu Founding Partner BOHE Angel Fund	Benedikt Luhmann Principal – Healthcare VI Partners
Chris Church Manager, Search & Evaluation, CVRM AstraZeneca	Corinne Venot Sr. Director, BD Beigene	Diana Saraceni Founder, Managing Director Panakes Partners	Guillermo Yudowski Principal Investigator, EPIU Biogen
Jonas Jendi Investment Manager Industrifonden	Katherine Cohen Venture Partner Panacea Ventures	Kevin Johnson Founding Partner Medicxi Ventures	Martin Pfister Sr. Investment Manager: Life Sciences High-Tech Gründerfonds
Murali Gopalakrishnan Sr. Director, Head Search & Evaluation Neuroscience AbbVie	Olaf Koenig Director, International Bd Amgen	Olivier Nosjean Research Scientific Director Servier	Paolo Pio Managing Director Joyance Partners
Sofia Ioannidou Partner Andera Partners	Stefan Luzi Partner Gilde Healthcare Partners	Thibaut Roulon Investment Director (Bioam & InnoBio) bpifrance	Thierry Laugel Managing Partner Kurma Partners
Tom Willis Partner Illumina Ventures	Victor Tong Partner Decheng Capital	Walter Stockinger Managing Partner Hadean Ventures	Wieger Vos Corporate Strategy, Healthcare KPN Ventures

Nancy Briefs

An interview with Nancy Briefs, CEO of Altrix Bio – By Greg Mannix, VP of International Business Development, LSN

Greg Mannix

RESI has recently added an all-day pitch track in which entrepreneurs can deliver their short presentation to an investor audience and get instant feedback and questions from investors. In January at RESI SF, Altrix Bio was selected as one of the pitch session finalists. You can now apply to pitch at RESI Europe. You can also apply for a poster spot in the RESI Innovation Challenge.

Nancy Briefs, CEO of Altrix Bio

trategic business leader with extensive experience creating value, driving strategy and launching product commercialization in diverse life science companies. Deep general management and fundraising expertise having raised over $500 M in equity including IPO. Innovative, collaborative and entrepreneurial, strong communicator and tenacious. Energized by turning innovation into commercial reality, working with creative scientists, and communicating value to partners and investors.

Greg Mannix: Nancy, congratulations on being a finalist in the first ever Featured Company Pitch Session dedicated to women CEOs. What are your thoughts on this focus?

Nancy Briefs: I think it was timely and important. Especially being in California, one of the first places to really push for more diversity. I thought it was a refreshing change!

GM: What can be done to increase gender diversity in leadership roles at life sciences companies?

NB: I think a lot of women fall off the path between senior management positions and the C-suite, partly because of family commitments and other factors. Another thing might be the lack of role models to look up to when they are coming up the corporate ladder.  And finally, it doesn’t help that the large majority of investors are also men, and are probably more prone to invest in people that look like them.  Events like this RESI pitch session dedicated to women in CEO roles, which gives visibility to women role models and successful leaders, is a good thing. It is a fact that women make most of the healthcare decisions in their families, so it would seem to make sense that they play a more prominent role in healthcare companies.

GM: How did the Pitch Session go?

NB: It was well attended; I think there were 100 to 120 people in the auditorium. The moderator did a good job keeping everyone on schedule. It was a well run session.

GM: And how did you do in this new pitch format at RESI?

NB: Really well! I love to pitch and we got really positive feedback from several people. We got great visibility for the company and two of the investors in the audience reached out to me afterward. We are currently in conversations with them, so we are pleased with the result.

GM: Why do you think Altrix got traction with investors?

NB: I think Type 2 diabetes it is such a huge global problem, and our solution LuCI™ AJN 003 is an elegant drug without any systemic effects.  That is important for the 50% of patients who do not reach glycemic control.   And our experienced team really knows what it will take to get us through Phase II clinical trials.   Also, Dennis Ford (Founder & CEO, Life Science Nation; Creator of RESI Conference Series), who we’ve been working with on our fundraise, really helped us focus our story. That made a difference as well.

GM: So you would pitch again at RESI?

NB: You bet!

AltrixBio has developed LuCI™, a novel substance that transiently coats the GI mucosa to block nutrient absorption, independent of the pH environment, temporarily mimicking the effects of Gastric Bypass (RYGB). LuCI is comprised of a sucrose octasulfate aluminum complex engineered into a complex coacervate formulation linked via pH-independent electrostatic interactions. When exposed to gastrointestinal fluid, LuCI forms a sticky paste that binds to the mucosa to form a coating on the site of GI tract. LuCI 1) can be orally administered, 2) rapidly binds to the luminal surface of the stomach, duodenum, and small intestine, 3) forms a continuous barrier coating to block nutrient contact, 4) has shown in vivo efficacy in a rodent model to significantly lower postprandial glucose response, and 5) has shown no systemic absorption or toxicity, thus minimizing the risk profile. Furthermore, by adjusting viscosity and dosing of the drug, we can alter duration of exposure, thus creating a family of drug formulations to coat the intestine and alter glucose homeostasis for different periods of time. The company is advancing AJN 003 for the treatment of type 2 Diabetes. Additionally, LuCI’s unique attributes may provide an ideal platform for delivery of drugs to the GI tract.