A venture fund focusing on the frontiers of the intersection of science and technology looks for companies that are changing the market standards through innovative approaches. The firm is interested in US-based companies and generally invests in seed-series A rounds, typically when less than $5m is being raised. The firm invests in pre-clinical/in development technologies but prefers there to be proof-of-concept data. For medical devices, the firm will consider devices in the 510k regulatory pathway. The firm will generally invest between $250,000-1M, and will often connect companies to larger funds for later capital raises.
The firm is agnostic to sector and indication, and will also consider platform technologies. However, the firm is looking for companies that use DNA and cellular engineering technologies for diagnostics and therapeutics. The firm is not interested in standard therapeutics approaches such as small molecules. For medical devices, the firm is looking for devices that change the paradigms of care, solving an unmet need with a unique approach.
The firm does not require a board seat when investing. Rather, the firm will be as involved as necessary to help the company succeed, whether through personal intervention or through a connection to an external expert.
If you are interested in more information about this investor and other investors tracked by LSN, please emailĀ mandates@lifesciencenation.com.
A large PE/VC is investing in life science innovation through its $5B Growth and Rise funds. The firm is a leading global private investment firm with over $59 billion AUM, based in San Francisco, California. The investment size typically ranges from $20M to $50M in equity. The firm is agnostic to company location or stage.
The firm aims to invest in therapeutics, commercial stage medical devices, and opportunistically in other innovative life sciences spaces. For therapeutics, the firm seeks small molecules and biologics and is open to all indications including orphan indications. The firm will consider products in all phases of clinical trials, from pre-clinical to phase III, and also commercial stage therapeutics. The firm is open to both PMA and 510K devices, as long as the device is already being sold at a commercial stage. The firm is also interested in services such as CROs and CMOs as well as tools of genomics and proteomics.
The firm invests for the long term, and is heavily involved in, and committed to, the growth and success of their portfolio companies. The firm, therefore, generally take a board seat/observer rights. The firm only invests in private companies.
If you are interested in more information about this investor and other investors tracked by LSN, please emailĀ mandates@lifesciencenation.com.
A wholly-owned venture arm of a Hong-Kong based family is focused on making early stage life science investments across sectors such as new therapeutics, diagnostics, medical devices, medical/healthcare services, healthcare IT and etc. The firm is managed by a team of investment professionals who are entrepreneurial, have deep scientific and industry knowledge and are effective in the environment in which they operate.
The firm seeks to invest in new therapeutics, diagnostics, medical devices, medical/healthcare services, healthcare IT etc. For therapeutics, the firm seeks novel small molecule and biologics and is agnostic in terms of indication. However, indications that address a large market in China are of interest. The firm looks for early stage assets in pre-clinical and phase I of clinical trials. However, the firm will not rule out assets in phase II. For devices, the firm is opportunistic in terms of the class of device.
The firm seeks an active role in its portfolio companies and generally obtain a seat on the board.
If you are interested in more information about this investor and other investors tracked by LSN, please emailĀ mandates@lifesciencenation.com.
An interview with Steven ten Holder, COO, Acorn Biolabs
– By Greg Mannix, VP of International Business Development, LSN
Greg Mannix
This yearās 2nd place finisher at the Innovation Challenge at RESI on MaRS was Acorn Biolabs. LSN interviewed COO, Steven ten Holder and got some key takeaways on how Acorn used the RESI Innovation Challenge effectively:
The Acorn team used their design and marketing skills to attract attention, rather than focusing purely on presenting scientific data
The team used the Innovation Challenge to create ad hoc meetings with 40 investors
Acorn is working to build on their success with press releases and investor follow-up after the event.
Acorn Biolabs is a Toronto-based company working out of the actual MaRS facility that has developed a novel non-invasive at-home kit to collect and viably transport cells and cryopreserve these cells as a way to ensure people will always have access to their own young therapeutically-capable cells.
Steven and Acornās CEO, Drew Taylor, registered quite late for RESI and didnāt have much time to set up meetings in advance. So they took more of an Ad-Hoc approach to the conference and looked to network with investors and strategics around their participation in the Innovation Challenge. It looks like it worked pretty well for them, as they placed second in the IC!
Greg Mannix:Ā Congratulations Steven on placing second in the IC! How did you manage to get so many attendees to invest their RESI cash in Acorn Biolabs?
Steven ten Holder:Ā There were a couple of things that seemed to work pretty well. We put a lot of thought into our poster, keeping in mind that most of the investors passing by are probably not experts in our particular field, so we tried to keep it not too scientific, having a good balance of text and images with a nice graphic design. The goal was to be able to explain the poster to anybody who stopped by in about 2 minutes, and I think it worked. Ā It also helped that we had a good location, catching people as they came in.
GM: So it sounds like you spent much of the day at the actual poster. Did you get a lot of Ad-Hoc meetings there?
STH: Absolutely! I think I must have spoken to at least 30 or 40 investors at the poster. By engaging them in conversation and understanding what their interest was, I could explain our technology in more or less detail. Many of them ended up investing their RESI cash in us, so that was great!
GM:Ā Do you think any of those meetings will turn into a future opportunity for Acorn?
STH: Yes, I can think of 3 investors in particular who are very interested in our company and we are already following up with them.
GM:What else did you find useful about RESI?
STH:Ā The information on the investors in the Partnering Platform was really useful. I didnāt really have time to attend the panels, but both Drew and I did some great networking at the cocktail reception, especially after having won second prize!
GM:So whatās next?
STH: Weāre definitely going to do a press release on our success at RESI.
Steven ten Holder, COO, Acorn Biolabs
– Lead Team of Bioengineers to International iGEM Competition
– Publisher Author in Novel Uses of Synthetic Biology
– Designed and Created CRISPR Viral Immunity System in Plants
Greg Mannix, VP of International Business Development, LSN
Greg Mannix is Vice President of International Business Development at Life Science Nation. After graduating from the University of California, he moved to Europe where he began a career in the life sciences and obtained a Masterās degree from IE Business School in Madrid. He has extensive experience in sales and marketing management in the medical devices field. He has worked extensively in Europe, North America and Latin America and he speaks English, Spanish and French. Gregās role at LSN is to provide international early-stage companies with the tools and strategies to succesfully fundraise and to facilitate cross-boarder investments, licensing and M&A transactions.
People’s own cells have and will continue to become the foundation of the most important future biomedical therapeutics and regenerative medicine strategies. Aged cells, however, are highly mutated and deteriorated versions of our current cells. Precisely when people will need high-quality cells the most, their cells at that time will be at their worst. Acorn Biolabs has developed a novel non-invasive at-home kit to collect and viably transport cells. Acorn cryopreserves these cells as a way to ensure people will always have access to their own young therapeutically-capable cells. The value potential is immense; customer’s preserved cells are a life-long living resource, retrievable for direct use with advanced cell-based therapeutics, and analyzable for personal genomics, epigenomics, proteomics and beyond.
During RESI on MaRS ā as part of Toronto Health Innovation Week ā we invited five panelists from renowned investment groups focusing on genomics to share their insights. How do they assess the genomics-related areas of investment?
Moderated by Ihor Boszko, Vice President, Business Development, Ontario Genomics, the Genomics Investor Panelists were:
Here are some takeaway points from the panel discussion:
Tools, platforms, and technologies Q: What do you see as exciting opportunities on the platforms/tools side of genomics? Is it in the decentralization of sequencing? Other genomics technologies?
The key is to think about what kinds of applications and markets these companies are targeting. When investors look at new sequencing platforms, they are thinking about what differentiates these new technologies from centralized sequencing ā what can these platforms do that centralized sequencing cannot? For innovative genomics companies, they must identify their target markets and specific applications they want to address in the decentralized models.
From different angles, all points to the same direction ā the guiding principle of making investments in the healthcare arena is looking for unique and differentiated technologies that address unmet needs. The other is costs, anything expanding access while lowering the cost speaks to investorās interests. For example, platform technologies that make things cheaper, better, or faster, making it practical in clinical settings ā this is what the investors are looking for.
Direct-to-consumer in Genomics
Q: What do you think about direct-to-consumer products in Genomics?
More and more direct-to-consumer products come out on the market, and itās getting easier for everyone to do it. However, genetics and genomics are complicated. In the current healthcare system, most people arenāt trained to order or interpret the results. The challenge is that training and sophistication will lag behind the technology for computers.
Some of these direct-to-consumer tasks are negatively impacting their reputation as it relates to quality. One of the ethics dilemmas around direct-to-consumer products is that people donāt understand the terms and conditions, and some of that is companies selling consumer data,
A single family office based in Toronto, Ontario has its main focus on real estate and mining, but is now looking to expand into the healthcare sector and plans to initially invest approximately $10M into seed-stage deals in the healthcare space. The firm may potentially reserve another pool of capital for additional healthcare investments in the future. The firm has flexibility with deal structures and may make either straight equity or convertible loan investments depending on the deal. In addition to capital, the group looks to add value to portfolio companies through marketing and sales expertise. The firm has no specific number of healthcare investments itās looking to make.
Within healthcare, the firm is focused on the medtech, diagnostic and health IT space. The firm is particularly interested in newly created or accessible markets such as leveraging smart phones, big data/data mining and AI for healthcare purposes. The firm is highly interested in mobile diagnostic devices, diagnostics for the consumer market and portable lab devices. The firm will also look at more traditional FDA regulated medical devices and diagnostics on a secondary basis.
The firm seeks companies addressing specific markets, but has no set requirements for entrepreneurs/management teams other than a very focused team that is passionate about the tech and market being pursued. The firm typically seeks a board seat along with in an investment, but may not require one depending on the terms of the deal. 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 Canada is making investments out of its first fund which closed at $500M. The fund was jointly established with a leading Chinese investment bank. The firm usually makes initial investments in the range of $5M-$10M with additional capital reserved for follow-on investments, but is capable of making smaller or larger investments. The firm primarily makes straight equity investments, but may consider convertible notes for smaller/earlier rounds. On occasion, public companies may be considered for investment. The firm is open to opportunities globally and will lead rounds as well as co-invest in a syndicate. The firm has no set number of investments it makes per year, but is a relatively nimble firm and able to act quickly when an opportunity presents itself.
The firmās focus is in health sciences, including therapeutics, devices, diagnostics and health IT.Ā Generally, the firm focuses on assets with clinical data and will invest in up unto Ph. III. The firm will evaluate pre-clinical assets pending there is a strong scientific rationale, and tends to prioritize platform technologies for early-stage assets. As for medical device companies, the firm prefers to see products with clinical data.
The firm prefers to work with experienced management teams, but will consider first time entrepreneurs as well. The firm typically seeks a board seat along with investment and in addition to capital, seeks to add value through developmental, infrastructure and expertise support, as needed, through the firmās global network. The firmās approach is to establish long-term relationships with target companies, with a view to enable and strengthen management to realize the full potential and value of the technology.
If you are interested in more information about this investor and other investors tracked by LSN, please email mandates@lifesciencenation.com.
People’s own cells have and will continue to become the foundation of the most important future biomedical therapeutics and regenerative medicine strategies. Aged cells, however, are highly mutated and deteriorated versions of our current cells. Precisely when people will need high-quality cells the most, their cells at that time will be at their worst. Acorn Biolabs has developed a novel non-invasive at-home kit to collect and viably transport cells. Acorn cryopreserves these cells as a way to ensure people will always have access to their own young therapeutically-capable cells. The value potential is immense; customer’s preserved cells are a life-long living resource, retrievable for direct use with advanced cell-based therapeutics, and analyzable for personal genomics, epigenomics, proteomics and beyond.
