An angel group that is made up entirely healthcare professionals is seeking to invest in technologies that significantly advance the standard of care. The group considers companies at a range of stages and is geographically agnostic. Since the members are investing their own capital, the investment size and capital structure are highly flexible. The group is actively seeking new investment opportunities, and is open to leading financing rounds.
The group is interested in therapeutics, diagnostics, and medical devices. While the group will consider most any indication and technology type, the group currently has a particular interest in cell therapy and in the oncology sector. In general, the group is not interested in dermatology. The group will only consider products that have shown human clinical efficacy; in the case of therapeutics, the group generally looks at phase II companies but if a company has obtained human efficacy data in phase I, the group would consider the opportunity.
The group invests in both private and public companies. The group performs deep scientific due diligence on all the opportunities that the group takes part in, often conducted by the group’s members.
If you are interested in more information about this investor and other investors tracked by LSN, please email mandates@lifesciencenation.com
The Corporate Venture arm of a Hi-Tech Company currently manages a total of $850 million in assets, and is looking to make equity investments ranging from $2-$5 million with the ability to allocate up to $10 million generally in series A-C rounds. The majority of fund’s investment have been throughout the United States although they have and are willing to invest internationally as well. The fund is actively reviewing new opportunities can could make 3-4 investments over the next year.
The Fund is currently interested in sectors of Medical Devices, Diagnostics and Healthcare IT that increase connectivity in the healthcare ecosystem. The fund is particularly interest in verticals of Health and Wellness, Chronic Disease Care, Aging in Place, Telemedicine, Genomics, Patient Monitoring, Clinical Trails Management, Mobile Software Healthcare IT Applications, and Electronic Medical Records Management. The fund is willing to invest in devices with 510k pathways however the fund is not currently considering highly invasive medical devices.
The Fund is looking for privately held companies with experienced management teams. The fund generally looks to take a board or observer seat following investment and is willing to both lead and co-invest.
If you are interested in more information about this investor and other investors tracked by LSN, please email mandates@lifesciencenation.com
A family office founded by a successful medical device entrepreneur can make investments ranging from approximately $500,000 to $100 million into companies and due to its funding structure has no requirements for holding period or capital structure. The firm makes investments in the forms of equity, controlling interest, in-licensing, MBO/LBO, growth capital and is also willing to co-invest. The firm is looking for companies located around the globe and makes around 5-15 investments in a given year.
The firm is looking for companies in sectors of Biotech Therapeutics and Diagnostics, Medtech, Heathcare IT, R&D Services, and Biotech Other. The firm is willing to consider all indications including orphan diseases, though they have some additional interest/experience is areas of Women’s Health, GI, Oncology, Cardiovascular, and Personalized Medicine including Proteomics and Genomics. The firm is most interested in companies that are in Phase II or later, nearing commercialization where the firm is capable of utilizing its operating company to scale up the company’s sales, marketing and distribution. That being said the firm has made earlier stage investments in the past and is open to considering highly innovative and compelling early stage companies. The firm is also interested in companies developing consumables/reagents, service providers, food and nutraceuticals.
The firm looks to work with management teams with experience and grit and generally looks to take a board seat although it is not a requirement. The firm looks to leverage the use of its operating company to assist the company’s sales marketing and distribution efforts as well as providing assistance in operations management.
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 branch of a drug retailing chain looks to make strategic equity investments into companies of up to $5 million. The firm is generally stage agnostic although they prefer companies at or near commercialization. The firm is actively reviewing new investment opportunities and is open to consider companies from around the globe.
The firm is focused on investing in companies of mutual strategic benefit to the parent company. This includes companies in sectors of Medical Devices, Point of Care Diagnostics, Healthcare Services, Pharmacy Innovation, and Sensors/Wearable devices. For medical devices and diagnostics the company prefers products that are near or have reached commercialization as the firm can add significant strategic value in distribution, marketing and sales. The firm is also very interested in products that will be sold directly to patients or devices/diagnostics that will be able to be used in the firms’ clinics. For wearable devices and sensors the firm is most interest in technologies with clinical value in terms of disease treatment and/or management. The firm is open to all indication types.
The firm is looking for privately held companies with experienced management teams. The firm looks to take a board observer seat following investment.
If you are interested in more information about this investor and other investors tracked by LSN, please email mandates@lifesciencenation.com
It is no secret that 2015 has been a highly active year for deal-making in the life science space. However, what is often overlooked is exactly where in the space those deals are taking place. Life Science Nation’s financing rounds database contains detailed information on over 250 of these rounds that have taken place since January 1 of 2015. We track this data from a variety of sources however as many companies and investors chose not to disclose this information this should be viewed as a sample of the entire data set of financings. With this article will highlight what our data tells us about the rounds that have taken place thus far in 2015 for therapeutics companies around the globe.
The first cut worth examining is the types of technologies that received funding.
Figure 1 | Source: LSN Financing Rounds Dataset | Data as of July 22, 2015
As this chart represents the funding of all stages of development, it should again come as no surprise that small molecules are the most popular technology type receiving funding. Things get more interesting when we take a deeper look here at the types of technologies in the preclinical and Phase I of development that received funding.
Figure 2 | Source: LSN Financing Rounds Dataset | Data as of July 22, 2015
While small molecules are still receiving the highest number of individual financings, in the early stage (preclinical and Phase I) they are ahead by a significantly smaller margin. Also, at this early stage we see gene therapy taking the number two spot, receiving 33% more financial rounds than antibodies. These companies include those working toward single gene mutation orphan diseases whose expedited regulatory approval process attracts investors, as well as those utilizing recent advancements in gene therapy to develop novel treatments for various cancers, diseases of the eye, and HIV/AIDS.
Another interesting perspective on the financing rounds data comes from looking the indication areas that received investments. (As many companies target multiple indications, a significant number of the rounds that are tracked count toward more than one indication.)
Figure 3 | Source: LSN Financing Rounds Dataset | Data as of July 22, 2015
This chart should come as no surprise to anyone who has been in the industry for the past few years. Oncology is the clear leader, securing the largest number of individual financing rounds, followed by diseases of the nervous system fueled by a number of investments in Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s, and ALS. Endocrine, nutritional, and metabolic diseases take the third spot, driven by a high level of investor interest in the expedited regulatory pathways for the numerous orphan indications that fall into this category, paired with the massive and growing market opportunity represented by diabetes.
A third angle that provides interesting insight into therapeutic financing rounds for 2015 is looking at the phase of development of the lead asset for companies that have received financing.
Figure 4 | Source: LSN Financing Rounds Dataset | Data as of July 22, 2015
At first glance this seems like a great sign for preclinical stage companies, which thus far in 2015 have been able to secure the second highest number of financings. Now while this is definitely an indicator of investor interest in the early stages of product development, a few things must be considered to understand fully the current competitive landscape. First, there are significantly more companies competing for those preclinical financing rounds than those looking for financing for Phase II assets. In our company platform, we have identified north of 650 companies with a lead asset in Phase II and nearly twice that number with lead assets in the preclinical stage. It should be noted that preclinical companies are often low profile entities and are difficult to track, so these figures do not reflect 100% of companies developing a preclinical lead asset. The key takeaway here is that investors are indeed making allocations to preclinical stage companies and at a significant pace; however, the competition for those dollars remains high.
2015 has been a banner year for therapeutics investment so far, and we are excited to see what the rest of the year will bring. Based on the conversations we’ve had with over 800 investors in the space, we see no signs of a slowdown in deals getting made. If you are out there fundraising, competition is tough without question, but money is moving and it is largely a matter of finding the right investors at the right time.
By Nono Hu, Senior Manager, Branding & Messaging, LSN
On June 8, 2015, the Redefining Early Stage Investments (RESI) Conference came to Texas Medical Center (TMC), the largest medical complex in the world. In order to fill in those that missed out, LSN has released a recap video which captures the happenings and buzz at TMC’s 100,000+ ft² accelerator space.
More than 300 fundraising life science executives and over 120 early stage investors booked RESI Partnering meetings to capacity. 21 panels and workshops provided firsthand knowhow regarding the early stage life science investment landscape. LSN would like to thank you for joining us at RESI @ TMCx – you made the event a huge success, and we look forward to seeing you again at RESI Boston on September 16th 2015.
Last week, we provided an overview of the infrastructure required to execute an outbound campaign. This week, we take a deeper look at how to build your target list of investors.
Chapter 9: “Global Target List—Match Your Firm with Investors That Are a Fit” explains the importance of finding alignment between your life science company and an investor’s interests. Here we outline how to use information on past financing rounds to uncover potential investors, and how to screen these leads to find active investors that may be interested in your company’s technology. Finally, we’ll anatomize an investment mandate, and examine the factors that determine fit, including your location, the type of product you’re developing, and the stage of development your asset has reached.
