JPM week is a very busy time of year for the biotech and medtech industries. With investors’ January schedules already filling up, it’s important for entrepreneurs to get themselves in the right place at the right time in order to meet with the hundreds of investors who will be in San Francisco that week. That is how you create relationships that could lead to an allocation.
LSN’s Redefining Early Stage Investments San Francisco event will be taking place on January 12th, 2016, and is shaping up to be the most dynamic yet in terms of investors already signing up. Evidently, investors are more organized than the rest of us! I am pleased to announce that RESI already has 150 investors from 16 countries registered to attend the event. This early trend is on track to surpass our most recent events in Boston and at TMCx in Houston in terms of investor turnout.
If you’d like to see all the firms and funds that have already registered for RESI, click the image below. We’re excited to welcome these and many more investors to the greatest RESI yet. If you’d like to join us at RESI, register here.
How will you make the most of your time in San Francisco in January? If you read our previous article, you’ll know that a record number of investors will attend RESI on January 12th. The RESI Innovation Challenge provides entrepreneurs with a way to engage with this huge audience of active life science investors throughout the event.
The RESI Innovation Challenge showcases selected entrepreneurs in an exhibition-style format throughout the full-day conference. From the pool of applicants, LSN’s internal scientific review board will choose the top 30 companies to present their technologies. Presenters will gain exposure to investors and potential partners by showcasing their companies and products in a poster board format in the RESI Exhibition Hall. Unlike traditional 5- to 15-minute pitch presentations, which don’t provide any real one-on-one interaction or actionable feedback from investors, the RESI Innovation Challenge enables executives to share their pitch directly with attendees, which can generate more in-depth and frequent conversations with potential investors throughout the event.
To add some friendly competition to the mix, LSN invites all attendees to participate in the RESI Innovation Challenge as virtual investors. At the start of the day, each attendee will receive “RESI Cash” to allocate to the entrepreneurs whose technologies they expect will be most successful. The capital invested will be tallied up at the end of the day, and the top three winners will receive prizes and be featured in our RESI newsletter recap that will go out to LSN’s 20,000 newsletter readership.
If you’re developing a cutting-edge biotech or medtech product, apply to the RESI Innovation Challenge to put your technology into the spotlight. We’ll look forward to seeing you take part in the biggest RESI Innovation Challenge yet.
Last month, the research team at LSN spoke with 80 investors seeking to make allocations into privately held life science and healthcare companies. These investors spanned 16 countries, and while a majority were based in the United States, LSN found a significant investor presence spread all around the globe (See figure below).
Source: LSN Investor Platform | Data as of October 31, 2015
What is more interesting than where these investors are based, however, is where geographically they are willing to make allocations if the right opportunity were to arise.
Source: LSN Investor Platform | Data as of October 31, 2015
Nearly half of the investors LSN’s research team spoke with in the last month are looking around the globe for investment opportunities. This trend is driven by a number of factors LSN Research is seeing in the space, including Asia-based investors looking overseas to bring technologies back to their local regions. LSN Research has also found that large pharma, medical device and technology companies (and their corporate VC arms) are increasingly interested in scouting globally for new technologies for their pipelines.
The chart below shows the different types of investors that LSN’s research team spoke with in October; LSN has found great diversity in the investor ecosystem.
Source: LSN Investor Platform | Data as of October 31, 2015
As LSN researches life science investors, the team meets an increasing number of investors outside of the traditional path of venture capital who are seeking to make allocations in the space. While venture capital remains a significant player that catches a majority of headlines, there are also many other investors operating in the space. By only attempting to secure funding from venture capital groups, you are greatly limiting your chances of finding the right funding partner.
While this roundup provides an overview of some of the information LSN has recently gathered regarding investor interest, LSN collects many other details that help us identify suitable opportunities for each investor. The research team at LSN looks forward to continuing to fill in our readership with any and all developments and trends we uncover when speaking with investors in this space.
An Ireland-based angel group has been operating for 5 years and has invested a total of €15-20 million in 15-20 companies, of which have raised more than €40 million thus far. The group focuses on the life science industry where they have made their largest investments, while also having several deals in other sectors such as energy and social media. The group seeks to make 3-4 investments a year, with an annual investment size of €3-5 million. The group typically invests €500,000-€1 million per company. The group has done syndicates with Scotland in the past, and is potentially open to syndicating with Angels in other locations. The group typically makes investments in Ireland-based companies, though is looking to make new investments in other regions in Europe, USA, and Australia.
The group has a particular focus in medical devices, and is also open to diagnostics, drug delivery, and drug repackaging. The group will not invest in therapeutics, pharmaceuticals, or new small molecules, and is agnostic in terms of phase of development.
If you are interested in more information about this investor and other investors tracked by LSN, please email mandates@lifesciencenation.com
A Taiwan-based investment firm is an evergreen fund and is the venture capital arm of a listed Taiwanese pharmaceutical company. The firm makes direct equity investments into venture stage companies, typically in Series A and B. The initial allocation ranges from $1-5 million. The firm is currently seeking opportunities based in Taiwan, China, Europe and the US.
The firm focuses 50% on therapeutics, 30% on medical devices, and 20% on other health technology. Within therapeutics, the firm considers small molecules and biologics in Oncology, CNS, pain, rare disease, and anti-infectives. The firm typically invests in preclinical projects that have proof-of-concept data and are within 2 years prior to phase 1 trial. Within medical devices, the firm is interested in innovative minimally invasive surgical tools for patient or bedside use such as point-of-care diagnostics.
The firm is looking for experienced management teams with strong scientific expertise and management skills. The firm typically requests a board seat in its portfolio company.
If you are interested in more information about this investor and other investors tracked by LSN, please email mandates@lifesciencenation.com
The corporate venture capital arm of a multinational engineering company is headquartered in Germany with offices in Israel and the United States. The firm’s investments are focused on financial returns, as well as, bringing strategic value to the parent company. The firm makes equity investments in seed through growth rounds ranging from €1M-€5M for typical investments and may invest up to €10M-€12M over the life of the investment. The firm will lead, co-lead or follow and typically seeks a 10%-25% stake in the company. The firm is currently investing out of its second fund of €150M with a total of €350M AUM, and makes 4-6 investments per year. The firm focuses on North American, European and Israeli companies.
The firm is only interested in diagnostics and monitoring devices with a particular interest in point-of-care diagnostics. Recent investments include an autonomous, mobile robot with delivery tracking software and a PCR-based diagnostic instrument for rapid pathogen detection. The firm does not invest in traditional biopharma therapeutics and/or medical devices which require FDA approval.
The firm will work with all management teams, including first time entrepreneurs, and requires at least an observatory board seat with most investments requiring a standard board seat with voting rights.
If you are interested in more information about this investor and other investors tracked by LSN, please email mandates@lifesciencenation.com
An early-stage investment firm is based in Midwestern US and consists of a team of entrepreneurs experienced in the grind of starting, operating, growing and harvesting exciting companies. The firm is investing from a $23M fund closed in 2014. The firm typically participates in institutional rounds and makes equity investments ranging from $250K-$750K in technology companies in $500K-$2M financing rounds. Convertible notes can be made in less frequent occasions.
Roughly 75% of the businesses the firm looks at are located in the Mountain West, and 25% are outside of the region. The firm seeks to lead a financing round in locally based businesses, but it typically plays a minor role in investment outside of their region unless there is a strong fit and local lead. The firm is currently seeking new opportunities.
Within healthcare, the firm is interested in health technologies that are easy to scale and require a short or no regulatory pathway to market. Examples include genomic analytics, physician-patient interphase platform, mobile health, and medical device with a heavy software component. The firm prefers post-concept projects with recurring revenue of 20-60K/month or some market validation.
The firm is looking for experienced management teams with proven profitability. The firm’s team brings in operational expertise and expects to get involved. The firm is open to both leading and co-investing, and if leading is the case, the firm typically takes a board seat.
If you are interested in more information about this investor and other investors tracked by LSN, please email mandates@lifesciencenation.com
