Next Phase Newsletter

By Caitlin Dolegowski, Marketing Specialist, LSN

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic will be lasting – creating both opportunities and challenges in the digital health sector. At last month’s Healthtech Partnering Week, these were popular themes throughout investor panels across the three early-stage partnering events, Digital RESI March, 4D Meets AI, and Longevity, Health & Innovation.

A main theme from investors participating in these panels is the sheer enormity of the opportunities in digital health. Dr. Stephen Pitt, Head of JLabs US North East kicked off the 4D Meets AI Digital Health panel by saying, “2020 was certainly a turning point for digital health. I think we saw the pandemic help accelerate some areas, such as telehealth.” The Digital Health for the Elderly panel at Longevity, Health & Innovation reiterated Dr. Pitt’s statement through a conversation surrounding the needs for access to high-quality telehealth services for seniors. This point was furthered in Digital RESI March’s panel by Relentless Venture Fund’s Managing Partner, Brenda Irwin, who stated, “$14.1B was deployed in digital health in 2020, which was a 72% increase from the most active year, which was 2018.” Additionally, major players like Microsoft are advancing the need for digital health advancements through their recent acquisition of AI and tech company, Nuance Communications for $16B.

Early-stage entrepreneurs are in a prime moment of investment opportunity. Some of the pre-pandemic emerging digital health ideas are now the new normal and the industry is at the tip of the iceberg of innovation. Health Equity Capital Managing Partner, Taja Lester highlighted a virtual healthtech advancement where 3,500 Parkinson’s patients participated in a clinical trial conducted by the National Institute of Aging entirely from patients’ homes. Additionally, technology is advancing; smart phones, wearables, tablets, etc. can now provide biomarkers remotely. This also contributes to provider interoperability, which allows for an entire care team to have access to all the information specific to them in one location. These improvements have been “drastically accelerated and made necessary by COVID,” according to Justin Kelly, Associate at AXA Venture Partners.

Functional versus personable partnering is also an undercurrent highlighted by digital access. In-person relationship-building can never be fully replaced with these remote technological advancements. “I think the personal connection is a very important part of how you find an early investor and how you get somebody on board that sees the problem the way you do because you have something really strong in common to go through the different phases that a start-up goes through,” says Syllable Co-Founder and CEO, Kobus Jooste.

With the rise of COVID-19 vaccinations, in-person events may be on the horizon. Whether partnering continues virtually or through a hybrid or in-person model, the applications of digital health advancement are likely here to stay, and will continue creating value for patients, providers, and partnerships. If you’re ready to dive into match-based partnering that fits your product and stage of development, register for Digital RESI, June 8-10 at early bird rates until May 7.

By Claire Jeong, Chief Conference Officer, Vice President of Investor Research, Asia BD, LSN

Digital Redefining Early Stage Investments (RESI), June 8-10, is around the corner, which means that super early bird rates end tomorrow! Sign up by Friday, April 9 to save $100 on registration to take advantage of the RESI partnering system which enables early-stage fundraising executives to source investors and strategic partners based on a fit for their product and stage of development.

Digital RESI June also offers a variety of investor panels, educational workshops, and the Innovator’s Pitch Challenge – all designed to offer valuable insight to entrepreneurs and opportunities to make matches, build relationships, and cut deals. Digital RESI has been a part of hundreds of companies’ early-stage fundraising success stories. Sign up to save and make it a part of yours!

The venture capital firm based in Vancouver, Canada and actively invests in health technology, sports technology, fitness, and nutrition businesses. The firm is an early-stage investor and focuses on investing in Seed to Series A rounds. The firm makes initial investments up to $100K through equity or convertible notes and will make 2-4 investments per year. The firm is raising a new fund that will focus on companies along the Pacific Coast of the USA and across Canada, but currently focuses on investing in Canada-based companies. With the launch of the new venture fund, the firm will invest up to $500k in first rounds.

The firm is dedicated to investing in preventative health and proactive technology solutions that optimize health, activity and longevity. As social impact and technology investors, the firm is committed to the development of technologies, products and services that both enhance and promote an individual’s ability to stay optimally healthy and active over an entire lifetime. The firm focuses on innovative health technologies including digital health, mobile health, sport technology, wearable technology, and those that help with chronic disease management and corporate wellness initiatives. The firm is very interested in consumer-facing technologies that can enhance health and wellness, quality of care, as well as technologies that could be used in developing preventative health strategies and solutions. The firm does not have minimum revenue requirements and will consider companies in their earliest stages as long as they demonstrate high growth potential. The firm will not consider therapeutics or diagnostic companies. Medical devices subject to a 510k approval process will be considered.

The firm seeks to invest in private companies developing technologies that positively impact health and wellness. The firm can work with all types of management teams with flexibility, although strong experience and a successful track record is a plus. The firm works closely with their portfolio companies and will provide needed expertise, including access to an international network of strategic advisors to support their growth.

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

A specialized life science investment and advisory firm provides a turnkey solution for life sciences companies, spanning venture capital, corporate advisory and investment banking, through to preclinical, clinical research, development, commercialization and sales.

Headquartered in Sydney and with offices in London, Shanghai and New York, the firm has a unique business model that serves to finance and advise across the entire spectrum of the drug development cycle. The Group consists of several tech transfer and financing entities and currently manages two, one hundred million-dollar funds that focus on the biotech theme through investments realized in companies at different R&D and corporate stages.

The firm typically invests $5M-10M AUD per company, the amount varies depending on the technology and structure of investment opportunity. The firm also has the capability to structure special purpose vehicles and/or financial instruments to realize specific investments that fall out of their mandate. The science, advisory, and capital arms work in synergy with each other to further the development of the research and development cycle.

The firm seeks biologic therapeutics, theranostics, medical devices, diagnostics, genomics, medical artificial intelligence applications, bio-printing and biosensors. The main focus is in discovery to preclinical stage assets but will also review clinical stage assets.

The firm typically leads investments, has the ability to invest globally and through various structures and/or financial instruments it may remain invested for several years across the R&D cycle.

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

A large healthcare company with offices worldwide invests in medical technology companies that are strategically relevant to them. The firm invests in new technologies via venture investing, collaborations, incubation, or M&A. The firm invests globally.

The firm’s primary focuses within healthcare include in-vitro diagnostics (particularly immuno and molecular diagnostics), digital lab services (including capacity management, care coordination, technologies that help physicians make diagnoses and other key decisions) and AI technologies in healthcare. The firm will invest in any medical indication area, and prefers companies that have at least attained proof of concept data or with a product on market demonstrating traction and revenue.

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