Next Phase Newsletter

A venture capital firm and company builder with headquarters in Western Europe and an additional office in the USA is allocating their funds primarily into companies in Europe and North America. The firm works on equity investments and venture creation, and the initial investment size is in the range from $1-5M in the Seed Round and additional $10-15M for subsequent rounds.

The firm invests in technologies that can treat age-related disease and damages associated with aging, such as altered protein homeostasis, cellular senescence, stem cell exhaustion, etc. The firm is primarily focused on therapeutics, but is also considering advanced therapy medicinal products (gene therapy, cell therapy, tissue engineering) as long as they are relevant to the firm’s mission in targeting the basic mechanisms contributing to age-related disease. However, medical devices are currently not an area of focus. In therapeutics, the firm looks mostly at pre-clinical technologies with a validated proof-of-concept. The firm will consider companies in their later stages but prefers working with early-stage companies to provide company building and strategic support.

The firm can work with all types of management teams. The firm places higher importance in the actual science or technology in development as well as solid IP position. The firm seeks to work closely with their portfolio companies and can assist with building and structuring a full management team. As the firm generally comes in as the first institutional investor, they prefer to lead rounds and take a board seat, but are also open to joining strong syndicates.

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

A seed fund based in the US has an initial fund of $20 million. The firm typically makes seed investments of $500,000, with a majority of their capital reserved for follow-on rounds. The firm focuses on investing in women-led startups in healthcare. The firm focuses on US startups but will also consider opportunities outside of the US with a US-based entity.

The firm invests in healthcare companies in which consumers are involved in the use of or purchase of the product or service. The firm does not invest in drugs, PMA devices or in purely B2B technologies. Areas of interest include wearable medical devices, software used by patients or their caregivers, products that support seniors in aging in place, and products for wellness and prevention of disease. The firm does not invest in products based on unproven science, and the company needs to be able to demonstrate that the product or technology improved clinical outcomes; however, the firm is open to investing in pre-revenue products.

The firm only invests in companies with at least one woman on the executive team. The firm will invest in companies that face operational risk, but not companies that face scientific risk. The firm would consider investing in digital health companies that have not yet conducted pilot studies with customers provided these companies have a strong IP position.

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

By Rory McCann, Marketing Manager & Conference Producer, LSN

One of the most active sectors in longevity and aging is drug discovery and development. Life Science Nation (LSN) is pleased to introduce the early-stage therapeutics panel at LSN’s newest partnering conference, Longevity, Health & Innovation (LHI). Led by Anastasiya Giarletta, a Principal at R42 Group, the panel will discuss the latest trends in the marketplace that impact how investors source and vet novel therapeutic assets and how today’s climate impacts their strategy to move these necessary products to commercialization. Get to know the panelists and sign up for Longevity, Health & Innovation to begin partnering with investors who match your product and stage of development.

 Moderator： Anastasiya Giarletta, Principal, R42 Group

Anastasiya Giarletta manages an extensive business network spanning FinTech, artificial intelligence and rapidly growing longevity biotech industries in the UK, Silicon Valley and New York. As a specialist in the early-stage longevity biotech ecosystem, she connects and advises venture funds, angels, and entrepreneurs, aligning them with success and growth, as well as organizing and leading collaborative longevity biotech industry events with her company Aikora Health. Previously, Anastasiya’s focus was on financial services, FinTech and venture capital space. Anastasiya holds a degree in Management and Sustainable Development from the University of St Andrews.

Alexandra Bause, Partner, Apollo Ventures

Alexandra is leading the venture creation programs that aim at founding new biotech startups targeting the aging process at a molecular level. She is also managing the pipeline and diligence process for external investment opportunities, predominantly focusing on preclinical stage biotech companies. Before joining Apollo Ventures, Alexandra worked with The Boston Consulting Group where she specialized in biopharma strategy, market assessment and asset diligence. Her PhD studies at Harvard Medical School were focused on investigating the molecular mechanisms that contribute to cellular aging and could be targeted to increase mammalian health span. She is also a trained pharmacist with expertise in pharmaceutics and pharmacology.

Patrick Burgermeister, Partner, KIZOO Technology Capital

Patrick Burgermeister is an expert in life science investing with a double background in molecular biology (Biozentrum Basel) and business administration (HSG Sankt Gallen). He joined Kizoo in 2019 coming from the venture capital group BioMedPartners where he was one of the partners. Moreover, his industry career encompasses also banking (as a senior analyst for pharma/biotech) and pharma (as a senior portfolio manager at Novartis). Patrick supports various biotech companies as a director on their boards, was a successful business developer for early-stage biotech companies and led collaboration and licensing deals with public and private companies. He headed business development at several companies including Apeiron Biologics and BioVersys.

Sergey Jakimov, Executive Board Member, Longenesis

Sergey Jakimov is a founder and advisor to multiple growth-stage startups in Europe and Asia. His main field of expertise is the industrial integration of digital health solutions and novel biomedical technologies, as well as the commercialization of hard IP assets. After graduating with merit from Central European University and Riga Graduate School of Law, Sergey founded two deep-tech ventures, one of which – Koatum – is a biomedical technology company that develops targeted drug delivery systems for dental and orthopedic implants, that is currently in the last round of validation before being launched as a commercial product into the US market. Using his experience in the field, Sergey, as the CEO of Longenesis – a digital health tech company, provides the R&D industry with tools that facilitate the clinical trial process in multiple research and healthcare institutions around the globe. Sergey is also a guest lecturer and co-author of the study program on product commercialization at the University of Latvia, as well as a guest lecturer in Riga Graduate School of Law (Latvia) and Riga Stradins University (Latvia). Recently, Sergey has co-founded LongeVC – an early-stage longevity-focused VC fund, looking to back emerging longevity tech in seed and pre-A stages.

Joon Yun, MD, President & Partner, Palo Alto Investors

Dr. Joon Yun is President and Managing Partner of Palo Alto Investors LP, a healthcare hedge fund founded in 1989. Board-certified in radiology, Joon served on the clinical faculty at Stanford from 2000-2006. Joon has served on numerous boards, and he is currently a trustee of the Salk Institute. Joon is a member of the President’s Circle of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Joon has published dozens of patents and scientific articles. Joon and his wife Kimberly launched the $1 million Palo Alto Longevity Prize in 2013 to reverse the aging process and recently donated $2 million to launch the National Academy of Medicine Aging and Longevity Grand Challenge. Fun fact: Joon has been going to Burning Man consecutively for the past 18 years.

If you’re looking for increased exposure and opportunities to pitch directly to investors at LHI, look no further than the Innovator’s PItch Challenge (IPC). Start-ups can pitch directly to a panel of investors during a live Q&A session. These sessions will provide valuable insights and feedback, as well as build connections between fundraising founders and potential strategic partners. Each company will be provided with a dedicated landing page on LHI’s virtual agenda, which will include their 4-minute pre-recorded pitch video, slide deck, executive summary, etc. Click here to learn more and apply for LHI’s Innovator’s Pitch Challenge.

By Karen Deyo, Director of Investor Research, Israel BD, LSN

Digital RESI January is rapidly approaching, and the RESI team has been hard at work recruiting panelists who can provide their perspective on current trends, as well as valuable advice to fundraising start-ups. From big corporations to angel groups, and from established VCs to family offices, the panelists participating at RESI reflect Life Science Nation (LSN)’s global investor network. All RESI panels will be live-streamed, giving audience members a chance to get their questions answered. Check out a preview of some of the speakers joining us at RESI – make sure to register for a chance to hear them speak!

Chester Wong Director, Business Development Amgen	Natalia Novac Director, Emerging Technology & Innovation Eli Lilly & Co	Chris Church Manager, Search & Evaluation, CVRM AstraZeneca
Aaron Schwartz Director, R&D Innovation Sourcing Novo Nordisk	Michael Baran Executive Director, WRD and Principal Pfizer Ventures	Mark Ralph Executive Director Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund
Miles Gerson Partner Takeda Ventures	Jenny Rooke Managing Director Genoa Ventures	Shaan Gandhi Principal Northpond Ventures
Noel Jee Principal Illumina Ventures	Tak Cheung Principal New Enterprise Associates	Alexandra MacLean Principal TVM Capital Life Science
Thierry Wurch Senior Director Ipsen S.A.	Yaniv Sneor Founding Member Mid Atlantic Bio Angels	Josh Phillips Managing Partner Catalyst Health Ventures
Emilia Gonzalez Principal Joyance Partners	Thom Rasche Partner Earlybird	Dana Callow Managing Partner Boston Millennia Partners
Amit Garg Managing Partner Tau Ventures	Michael Sidler General Partner Redalpine	Nadav Shimoni Head of Digital Health Arkin Holdings Ltd
Jorge Aquino Director, Ventures Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures	Shyam Patel Director, Business Development California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM)	Somjeet Dey Senior Manager Otsuka Pharmaceuticals
Prathna Ramesh Executive Director Maple Leaf Angels (MLA)	Owen Smith Investment Director 4Bio Capital Partners	Hewmun Lau Principal Broadview Ventures
Bettina Ernst Partner BERNINA BioInvest	Bryan Grulke Partner Volcano Capital	Sajal Heda CEO & Founding Partner Amana Global Partners
Ozan Isinak President, Central Canada Keiretsu Forum	Norm Gitis Founder, Managing Partner Lymo Ventures	Darshana Zaveri Managing Partner Catalyst Health Ventures
Juan Cueva Investor Action Potential Venture Capital	Gary Gershony Partner BayMed Venture Partners	David Uffer Senior Partner Alira Health Ventures
Greg O’Ryan Johnson Advisor Cancer Fund	Diana Saraceni Founder, Managing Director Panakes Partners	David Xu Chief Business Officer Viva BioInnovator
Jeff Arnold Member Boston Harbor Angels	Rohit Pratap Singh Vice President, Investments Xeraya Capital	Lore Gruenbaum Vice President, Therapy Acceleration Program Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS)

By Dennis Ford, Founder and CEO of Life Science Nation, Creator of the RESI Conference Series

In 2012, Life Science Nation (LSN) CEO Dennis Ford had a dream of helping innovative, life-saving technology and products go to market and help patients. The bottleneck he saw was in the early-stage ecosystem where fundraising entrepreneurs were failing to effectively target, meet, and pitch to investors who were the right fit for their product and stage of development. LSN was born to deliver products, services, and education, as well as partnering opportunities through events like the Healthtech Partnering Week, in order to connect buyers and sellers within life science and healthcare to advance life-saving deals.

While the offerings have expanded and pivoted to serve an ever-growing audience and the needs for more opportunities and digital connectivity, the dream in 2020 is the same as in 2012. LSN is proud to serve early-stage companies, investors, tech hubs, incubators, and service providers, and the team is pleased to release an updated executive summary to re-introduce LSN to its growing community. Whether new to LSN or a long-time “friend of the firm”, the team hopes to find a shared commitment to advancing deals within life science and healthcare, and even find a service, product, or event that can move the needle for you.

Click Here to View LSN Executive Summary