In addition to RESI’s industry-leading one-on-one partnering experience, RESI Panels provide a great chance for entrepreneurs to hear insights from experienced investors as well as direct interaction opportunities with these speakers. Every panel will be a 50-minute moderated discussion in which the audience can be involved as well asking questions as the panelists discuss and move from topic to topic. RESI Europe will also feature different panels focused on informing entrepreneurs on how to go about raising capital for their life science technologies. Check below to see our updated speakers that will participate in RESI Europe in Paris on March 23, 2020.
Adriaan Hart de Ruijter
Managing Director Cascara Ventures
Allan Daisley
Managing Director Startupbootcamp
Digital Health Miami
Amine Benmoussa
Founding Partner Apogee Ventures
Arpita Maiti
Executive Director & Global Head, Emerging Science & Innovation Lead, Inflammation & Immunology Pfizer, Inc
Baudouin Hue
Partner CapDecisif Management
Ben Evans
Investment Director InHealth Ventures
Caroline Sai
European Coordinator of EIT Health Investor Network EIT Health
By Bryanna Allison, Business Development Manager, LSN
In the weeks following up to each RESI conference, we spend a lot of time on making the most of RESI Partnering. We have written multiple articles about the importance of partnering, and how to use the system to the greatest effect. In addition, we have recently featured interviews with RESI attendees using partnering successfully, ultimately leading to successful fundraising campaigns. To help RESI attendees, below is a video featuring a full tutorial of the partnering platform. Make sure to check it out to see all of the features available on partnering!
A venture capital firm based in the Netherlands is raising a new fund, with a target of over EUR 100 million. The firm invests all over Europe, and the new fund will have the capacity to invest in the US as well. The firm invests up to EUR 12 million, and may make larger investments from the new fund. The firm generally leads financing rounds.
The firm focuses on therapeutic modalities and platforms, including small molecules, antibodies, cell therapies, and screening platforms including genetic screening. The fund is indication agnostic and typically invests at an early stage.
The firm is a very active investor and typically leads rounds, but can also be a follow-on investor. The firm also sometimes takes part in company generation and new spin-outs from universities.
If you are interested in more information about this investor and other investors tracked by LSN, please email: mandates@lifesciencenation.com.
A venture capital firm based in Taipei makes venture stage investments solely in life sciences companies. The firm is currently investing from a US$35M private fund and a $50M government matching fund. Equity allocation size varies and can reach up to US$3M per deal. The firm is open to leading or co-investing. The firm focuses 30% on foreign deals and is currently seeking new opportunities.
The firm is focused on pharmaceuticals, medical devices, diagnostic products, and medical instruments etc. The firm looks for companies with strong intellectual propositions that will develop unmet medical need products. The firm intends to explore joint venture opportunities with foreign companies that can integrate Taiwan’s competitive capabilities in manufacturing, clinical development, and regional sales/distribution.
The firm is looking for experienced management teams with strong sector expertise. For domestic deals, the firm seeks an active role in its portfolio companies and would require a board seat on a case-by-case basis. For foreign deals, the firm prefers to syndicate with a strong lead that can work with invested companies closely.
If you are interested in more information about this investor and other investors tracked by LSN, please email: mandates@lifesciencenation.com.
A major reinsurance firm based in Europe makes direct venture stage investments in strategically relevant healthcare startups through a corporate venture capital team, and also invests in life science funds and incubators around the world. The firm invests opportunistically, with a focus on early stage opportunities.
The firm invests strategically in startups that could potentially drive growth in its life and health insurance businesses. In life sciences, the firm is interested in the convergence of life science and insurance tech, and invests in areas such as genomics, digital health, and diagnostics (including diagnostic products focused on consumers as users). The firm is open to investing in any indication area.
The firm’s investments are strategic in nature, and the firm can potentially act as a strategic partner to a portfolio company by supporting product deployment among its network in the health insurance space.
If you are interested in more information about this investor and other investors tracked by LSN, please email: mandates@lifesciencenation.com.
A venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley works closely with major incubators globally, through which they are able to identify high-potential, disruptive technologies. The firm is actively investing in early-stage companies and generally participates in Series A to B financing rounds. The initial size of investment depends largely on the company’s stage of development. The firm seeks investments globally.
The firm will consider opportunities in therapeutics, diagnostics, and digital health/healthcare IT. The firm is most interested in data-centric and enterprise technologies. The firm is agnostic to subsector and indication, but the firm will generally avoid medical device companies and early-stage therapeutics companies (i.e. those that take longer than 18 months to commercialize). That said, the firm may consider derisked assets or those that have an accelerated pathway to commercialization. Within healthcare IT technologies, the firm would like to see revenue-generating companies with good consumer traction.
The firm invests in both publicly traded and privately-owned companies. The firm is an active investor and will directly engage in the growth of their portfolio companies through a number of value-ons, including brand building, international expansion, talent recruiting, operation and technical guidance, etc. The firm need not have a fully established management team prior to investment.
If you are interested in more information about this investor and other investors tracked by LSN, please email: mandates@lifesciencenation.com.
An interview with Yuan-Ren Cheng, COO of Heroic-Faith Medical Science
– By Jessica Yang, Investor Research Analyst, LSN
Jessica Yang
International early-stage companies often seek cross-border investment opportunities and strategic partnerships. How do these companies start at the beginning? What can they do to meet global investors and expand beyond regionally available resources? LSN invites 10 different types of investors from across the globe to meet with early stage companies at the RESI conferences, allowing companies to take advantage of the chance to meet many investors who are a fit for them in one day. I recently spoke to Yuan-Ren Cheng, COO of Heroic-Faith Medical Science, who won second place in the RESI San Francisco 2019 Innovation Challenge and successfully raised their seed round. Heroic-Faith Medical Science is a Taiwan-based medical device company developing AI-powered respiratory monitor for the critical care medicine.
Jessica Yang (JY): Congratulations on raising your seed round! What is the recent progress of your company?
Yuan-Ren Cheng (YRC): Thank you! We raised our seed financing round of $2.96 million, and we are looking to raise our Series A round for $7 million this year. Our exciting story was that, before we attended RESI SF last year, we had secured only $900K for our seed round, and after RESI SF, we raised an extra of $2.06 M to make it $2.96 M in capital. We grew from 7-8 team members to 21 employees now. We also received our key patent in the US recently, and we expect our device to receive US FDA clearance this year.
JY: That’s amazing! How do you think RESI helped you?
YRC: I think applying for Innovation Challenge was an important decision for us. We got selected as a finalist at our first RESI and won second place. This helped us gain a lot of exposure via RESI’s newsletter announcement and promotion for the top 3 Innovation Challenge winners, and RESI’s media partners also promoted our company and technology. I think this make our respiratory monitor became more famous.
Besides some investors from Taiwan that we’d seen before, most investors are new to us. We got 11 confirmed meetings at our first RESI, including big firms like Siemens. Interestingly, though the VP of Business Development from Siemens told us we weren’t a fit for their investment focus, she still sees our product promising and further introduced her connections in the patient monitor area. This is the power of RESI! You get to meet right people in similar industries at RESI, and if you are well-prepared, you could get even more opportunities from these people. That’s why we always recommend other startups that we know to apply for Innovation Challenge and proactively attend RESI.
JY: What was your strategy of sending out meeting requests in the RESI partnering platform?
YRC: We sent 100+ meeting requests through the partnering platform. We especially increased our efforts in the week before RESI. We noticed that many investors start to lock down their schedules in the week prior to the conference, and that’s why we sent follow-up messages in the partnering system to grab their attention. Also, we regularly researched the partnering system for newly added investors. We searched and sorted hundreds of investors in the partnering system, then we prepared three kinds of executive summaries targeting different categories of investors that fit us. For example, we had executive summaries specifically for Medtech investors, Healthcare IT investors, and investors who are interested in pulmonary and cardiovascular sectors.
JY: How do you think Innovation Challenge is different from other startup competitions? What is the key advantage of Innovation Challenge?
YRC: Overall, I think RESI really organizes the Innovation Challenge very well! The RESI team provided instructive information to let everyone know the purpose of this competition is for startups to network with investors at their poster. It’s very straightforward and condensed, and the Innovation Challenge allows us to have interactions with many RESI attendees. We got tons of business cards and recognized new business opportunities because of the Innovation Challenge. This is crucial to us because we know whom to contact and with whom to follow up after the conference. After all, you need a list to send your emails with company updates.
Speaking of this, I will also recommend that two people from the same company attend RESI together, to allow one to focus on partnering meetings and the other to stay at the Innovation Challenge poster. I think this is the most productive way to attend RESI.
JY: In your seed round you also raised money from non-Taiwan investors, what is your suggestions to international companies who are currently fundraising?
YRC: I think one point is that international startups have to step out and attend global conferences like RESI. Looking for cross-border partnership isn’t an easy task. We know that some investors with geographical restrictions of their investments could be the barrier. But if you have strong arguments to convince other global investors with your actual execution and performance, I think there are always chances to get funding. For example, you really need to understand the unmet medical needs, digitize your company’s progress, and even find out the advantages from where you’re based. This is also why RESI is such a great platform that you can keep attending the conferences and following up with potential opportunities. Otherwise, you won’t know where to start and find targets that aren’t based in your region. You can also learn what other early-stage companies are developing in RESI and analyze your competitiveness.
JY: Thank you so much for sharing your story!
Established in June 2018, Heroic-Faith Medical Science Corp., LTD. is focused on the development of medical devices for the critical care medicine. The total annual spending on ICU care in North America in 2018 reaches $108 billion USD, being second only to cancer care which totals $158 billion USD, making it a key market that is marked by costly spending, as well as one that is open to new ideas. We hope to combine Taiwan’s advanced medical expertise with its cutting-edge electronics capabilities to develop break-through products, so that we can realize the ideal of our CEO, “Saving lives through innovation”, in the global market.
