Venture Capital Firm Invests Globally in Tech-Based Diagnostic & Digital Health Companies, Especially Those Seeking China Market Entry

A venture capital firm with over 15 years of experience is looking to invest in tech-based digital health and diagnostics companies looking to expand to the Chinese market. The firm primarily invests in European companies, but will consider companies based in the US as well. The firm looks to leverage their connections to China and the Chinese market on behalf of its portfolio companies. The firm looks to invest between $2-10M in companies, taking a 15-30% equity stake. The firm prefers to be a lead investor, taking an active role in their portfolio companies, and will invest in about 2 companies a year, depending on their fund cycle. In cases where the firm does not invest funds, they are also willing to offer consulting services for equity, connecting companies with strategic partners in China.

The firm has an additional partnership model that, instead of direct investment, licenses technologies through a Chinese platform company, acting as a focused distributor for entry into the Chinese market. This is the firm’s alternate investment approach to bringing these technologies to the Chinese market, by utilizing this Chinese platform company to serve as their portfolio company’s representative in China to navigate the regulatory environment and spearhead all of the sales and marketing.

The firm is interested in tech companies that are not consumer focused. The firm looks for companies such as diagnostics tools or AI/machine learning technologies in the healthcare space. The firm has some experience with pathology diagnostic related companies, but is willing to consider other areas as well. The firm prefers to invest in a few companies within the same area, choosing complementary technologies between their portfolio companies. The firm will consider companies with technologies that are in development or in pilot stages.

The firm is an active investor and takes a board seat for every company in which they invest.

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

RESI Partnering Opens On Monday August 6th – See Confirmed Investors & Partners

By Lucy Parkinson, VP of Investor Research, LSN

At LSN, we’re gearing up to open the RESI Partnering portal in just a few days.  We’ve been overwhelmed by the investor interest in this year’s RESI Boston Fall event, with investment decision makers heading to RESI from pharma firms, VCs, family offices, corporate VCs, impact investment funds, foundations, PE firms, angel groups and institutional investment firms all over the world.

RESI attendees can book up to 16 face to face meetings with investors on September 6th.  The unique, high-touch partnering information provided by the LSN Investor Platform helps RESI’s attendees determine a potential fit prior to reaching out for a meeting.

If you’d like to get in on the RESI Partnering action, register now.

Click to See More Confirmed Investors & Strategic Partners

 

Investor Spotlight: GreyBird Ventures Heads to RESI to Source New Diagnostic Technologies

By Claire Jeong, Senior Research Analyst, LSN

claire

It’s challenging to pitch a diagnostics opportunity to investors, and many entrepreneurs in the field feel that it’s hard to uncover investors who have a strong focus on the field.  At RESI Boston on September 6th, two panel sessions will focus on the difficulties and the possibilities for new technologies that will guide patient care in the future.

Tom Miller, Managing Director of GreyBird Ventures, will be the moderator of the RESI panel on Personalized Medicine.  As his firm has a focus on diagnostic technologies, LSN is delighted to have Tom as the leader of this 50-minute discussion at RESI where the future of personalized care will be in the spotlight.  We asked Tom about his goals for the event.

What will RESI attendees learn from you?

As, unlike most healthcare VCs, we are focused on technologies for diagnosis, we can give solid advice on that particular segment.  Diagnostic technologies have many of the same requirements as pharmaceuticals in terms of clinical trials needs and the importance of solid clinical data but very different boundary conditions for capital efficiency and exit expectations.

What makes you excited to attend RESI?

It is a very efficient use of time.  We get to see a large number of companies that exactly fit our investment strategy and focus in the speed-dating format.  And the match-making software allows us to weed out those companies that would not be a fit making sure that both sides do not waste time.  I also get to meet like-minded investors as we are always seeking best practices from which we can learn.

Investing in Personalized Medicine
Thursday, September 6th, 2018
3:00 – 3:50 PM

This panel will discuss current trends in personalized medicine.  Topics may include:

  • How investors assess personalized medicine technologies and applications in diagnostics, drug discovery and treatment plans
  • Which indications investors believe are showing the most promise – genetic disorders, orphan diseases, oncology, etc.
  • Investing in individualized treatments (such as CAR-T) and the scalability challenges of autologous vs allogeneic/xenogeneic off-the-shelf treatments
  • The regulatory challenges some of these technologies face, whether to ensure individual privacy from genomics databanks or to prevent potential harmful side effects from therapeutics such as CRISPR technologies

Personalized medicine has proven to produce more effective treatments in multiple indications by tailoring medical treatment to the individual and their disease. Additionally, early detection of disease has improved outcomes for many patients. Panelists will discuss where the field is heading and what unique challenges companies in this area will face.

Tom Miller

After receiving a degree in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, Tom studied Medical Physics at the Harvard/MIT Health Sciences and Technology joint program graduating with a Masters degree in 1982.  During his academic career he worked at Los Alamos, the Swiss Institute for Nuclear Research (now the Paul Scherer Institute), Brookhaven National Laboratory, and the Massachusetts General Hospital as a research associate in radiation biophysics.

Tom then joined Siemens Medical Systems where, after 9 years, he became the first non-German CEO of a German factory and business unit.  He left Siemens after 15 years to become CEO of the global medical operations of Carl Zeiss.  Completing a successful turnaround, he joined Analogic Corporation as CEO.  After three years and a doubling of the stock price, Tom left to become CEO of LightLab Imaging, a start-up that he helped to establish.  Completing a profitable sale of LightLab, Tom re-joined Siemens eventually serving as a member of the operating board of Siemens Healthcare and the CEO of Customer Solutions Division, responsible for 26,000 employees in over 130 countries.  Tom co-founded GreyBird in mid-2013 with an investment focus on technologies enabling precision medicine diagnosis.

 

Hot Investor Mandate: Menlo Park-Based VC Firm Makes Global Investments in All Sectors of Life Sciences, with Focus on Oncology & Orphan Therapeutics

A large investment firm in Menlo Park, CA, with additional offices throughout the USA and Asia invests broadly in the healthcare and technology sectors, in both venture and growth-stage financing rounds. Due to the firm’s large fund size, the firm generally only invests in rounds that raise $10 million or more. The firm makes investments globally.

Within healthcare, the firm focuses on biopharma, and also invests in medical devices, healthcare IT and healthcare service providers. The firm is generally not seeking opportunities in diagnostics. In biopharma, the firm prefers to invest in companies that have obtained data from human clinical trials; however, the firm also invests in breakthrough therapeutic technologies at the preclinical stage. In medical devices, the firm only invests in growth-stage companies with an approved product and initial revenues; the firm prefers to invest in breakthrough device technologies and avoids commodity markets. The firm has a broad portfolio and is open to any indication area, but has a particular focus in oncology and orphan diseases, and typically does not invest in infectious diseases.

Within the service provision and IT sectors, the firm is focused on opportunities that provide cost savings to the healthcare system; in this sector, the firm’s expertise is primarily in companies that target healthcare providers as customers, but the firm is also open to considering other areas of the services/IT space. The firm has no fixed requirements for companies or management teams.

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

Hot Investor Mandate: Large Japanese Chemical Company Seeks Investment, M&A, Licensing Opportunities in Clinical Diagnostics, Research Tools, and Materials

A global chemical company has established a successful USA office that has grown to become the corporation’s main sales, marketing, and business development center in North America. In addition to a variety of other markets, the group serves the chemical, petrochemical and bioscience markets. The group has recently started a corporate venture initiative with a $300M budget to make strategic investments into both pre and post-commercial companies. The group is flexible in terms of structuring investments and may employ equity investments, M&A and licensing agreements. The group targets investment sizes from $100k – $5M for early stage companies and $10M-$50M for commercial-stage companies.

In terms of the healthcare and life science sectors, the group is most interested in companies working in diagnostics and research tools. The group is particularly interested in clinical diagnostics including IVDs and next generation platforms (NGS, liquid biopsy, LC-MS, point-of-care testing, digital PCR), separation media and connected devices and wearable medical sensors. The group is also interested in advanced materials including materials for secondary batteries, thin-film for electronic devices, separation (inorganic/organic/polymers) and composites. The group is agnostic to indication area, but has a particular interest in cancer, metabolic (including diabetes) and kidney disorders as well as reproductive health.

The group has no strict company or management team requirements and invest in both early and later stage opportunities. Board observer status is required along with an investment.

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

Hot Investor Mandate: Shanghai PE Firm Invests Up to $10M in Emerging Medical Technology and Diagnostics Companies with Potential for China Market Entry

A China-focused investment firm based in Shanghai seeks to invest in emerging Medical Technology and Diagnostics companies at near commercial or commercial stage. The investments are typically in forms of equity. The investment size generally ranges from US$2 million to US$10 million. The firm primarily invests in companies across China, but it will also consider Medical Devices that have attained approval to enter the market in China.

The firm is currently looking for new opportunities in the Medical Technology and Diagnostics sectors. The firm is open to all classes of medical devices and it is opportunistic in terms of indications. The firm is particularly interested in companies with products that are completing or have already completed China regulatory approvals and are preparing to enter the Chinese market. It is also interested in companies with products already on the market. The firm focuses on the phase of development more than the products.

The firm generally invests in private companies with a strong management team and significant growth potential. The firm will consider make PIPE investments on a case-by-case basis. The firm looks to take a board seat.

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

Hot Investor Mandate: East Coast-Based VC Firm Invests in Tech-Enabled Health Servicesand Consumer-Facing Medtech/Diagnostic Companies Throughout North America

An investment firm based in the East Coast builds and invests in companies in the healthcare sector, with a focus on personalized health and consumer health. The firm typically invests in seed or Series A rounds and initial investments range from $150,000-$1.5 million, with a potential commitment of up to $5 million over the life of the investment. The firm invests in the USA and Canada.

The firm focuses on healthtech and tech-enabled health services. The firm is interested in disease management (includes chronic, autoimmune, mental/behavioral, neurology, microbiome, and digital therapeutics), care management, precision medicine, remote monitoring (including pushing the point of care into ambulatory settings such as retail clinics and the home), population health management (including underserved patients and Medicaid recipients, and patients living in areas outside the East Coast and West Coast). The firm is also open to investing in devices and diagnostics, but only if they are targeted at consumers/patients as users, rather than physicians.

The firm generally does not invest in companies that face FDA regulatory risk; the firm invests in companies with products that are already approved or do not require FDA approval. The firm prefers to invest in revenue generating companies but will consider startups that will begin to generate revenue in 6-12 months.

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