A family office arm specializes in investing in and operating medical device companies in which it holds a controlling interest. The firm looks to invest in early and seed stage companies with the goal of investing in 1-2 companies per year to add to its portfolio.
The firm looks to invest in medical device companies that are still in development. The firm prefers technologies subject to the FDA 510(k) pathway, but will consider PMA/combination device and therapeutics if the technology is extremely disruptive. The investors are agnostic with regards to subsector and indication. Current portfolio companies include surgical tools for cardiovascular interventions, consumer health electronics, hospital hardware and therapeutic delivery devices for multiple clinical applications.
The firm looks to invest in companies with great technology that need operational expertise to help advance the technology to market with the goal of leveraging its internal management team for execution of product development, regulatory, and commercial strategy.
If you are interested in more information about this investor and other investors tracked by LSN, please email mandates@lifesciencenation.com.
A venture capital fund/family office based in Hangzhou, China currently manages two venture funds in addition to a number of private capital accounts through which investments are made – these two funds focus on life sciences. The firm primarily makes equity investments in early-stage rounds ranging from $1 million initially; for later-stage to pre-IPO companies, the firm looks to make initial equity investments ranging from $3-5 million. The firm looks for companies located around the globe, with a preference in the US and Europe (UK). Currently, the firm is also actively seeking in-licensing opportunities in biotech innovations that has a China angle. The firm is actively looking for investment opportunities.
The firm is a flexible and opportunistic investor and will consider therapeutics, medical devices, and diagnostics. The firm is open to all kinds of sectors and indications. For therapeutics, the firm has specific focuses on novel candidates for disease, PD1-base approaches, gene therapy, oncology, cardiovascular diseases, and small molecules. For medical devices, the firm is open to novel medical devices of all FDA regulatory pathways, including 510k and PMA. The firm is also interested in diagnostics although this area is less of a focus. In terms of therapeutics, the firm will look at products of pre-clinical stage and later stages from phase II to phase III. Regarding medical devices, the firm will invest at any stage of development.
The firm is looking for private companies only. The firm typically has no specific requirements for the management team, but this depends on how much the firm invests. The firm looks to take a board seat following the investment and is comfortable acting as both a lead or co-investor.
If you are interested in more information about this investor and other investors tracked by LSN, please email mandates@lifesciencenation.com.
For every RESI event, the LSN Investor Research team aims to recruit a diverse slate of panels with experienced investors of all types and focus areas within life science technology. As one of the more highly sought types of investors for entrepreneurs, Family Offices is a recurring panel at RESI. Mostly backed by private wealth as evergreen funds, family offices often have deep connections in the life science field both professionally and, at times, personally—some family office investors have loved ones battling debilitating diseases. Family offices are highly idiosyncratic with their own motivations and strategies, though despite their differences and founding stories, they continue to play actively within life science investment.
On April 10th at RESI Toronto, we will hear from four family offices that invest in several different life science sectors. Moderated by Catherine Love, Director of Capital Services for MaRS Discovery District, the panelists include:
As the RESI San Diego event is now in the rearview mirror and we prepare to bring RESI home to Boston (Sept. 26th), we wanted to take a closer look at the Medtech Family Office panel session. Family offices are clearly a highly sought-after investor class and are not completely understood by a large portion of entrepreneurs. To that end, we’ve pulled out some of the most insightful points that were discussed and distilled the panel session into this summary video to help shed some light on how family offices evaluate early-stage investments, how to reach them and what differentiates them from VCs and other early-stage investors.
Family offices are not a silver bullet for your financing needs
A lot of entrepreneurs mistakenly believe that finding a family office will solve all their fundraising woes i.e. long-term investors with less rigid requirements. While it is true that family offices tend to be more patient capital and more flexible with terms and deal structures (a result of not having to answer to LPs), these groups are in fact looking for a return and typically will be active either at the board or management level to hit milestones and create value. Additionally, as your company grows and matures, the capital requirements and expertise required for the healthcare space oftentimes necessitate bringing in deep-pocketed institutional investors, who family offices maintain relationships with.
Family offices are purposefully low visibility
Given that family office investors have no mandate or timeline to allocate money, they can wait on the best deals and entrepreneurs to surface, therefore their deal sourcing channels are much different than a VC or another institutional investor. Further, these groups tend to be very much relationship-oriented. Networking is a must to uncover these investors and begin building a relationship, with some of the best events to attend being a part of universities and tech transfer offices as well as focused partnering conferences, such as the RESI conference.
Family offices are not homogenous
This point can’t be stressed enough. While there are some common themes among these groups (mostly dictated by structure or lack thereof), they are largely very different. Some may be more philanthropically motivated as they are looking to fund research/companies pursuing indications that have afflicted their family while others act more like an institutional fund with a focus on returns. It is essential to do as much research as possible on each specific family office to try and find mutual connections and the best way to approach them.
Moderated by Michael Quigley, VP of Investor Research, LSN, the panel includes the following speakers:
Sean Kearny, Managing Director, Three Leaf Ventures
Kyle Williams, President, Bootstrap Incubation
John Kinzell, Sr. Life Science Analyst, The McNair Group
Julia Belaya, Director – Corporate Partnerships, Plug & Play Tech Center
By Dennis Ford, Founder & CEO, Life Science Nation; Creator of RESI Conference Series
More frequently than not LSN captures content through its RESI panels that hits the nail on the head. The recent “Tales from the Road” Panel does just that. It’s 6 minutes long but worth a viewing it if you are a scientist-entrepreneur or fundraising CEO. The most vital take-aways include how to source potential investors (particularly family offices), the process of “working” your pipeline of investors, and the costs associated with conducting a successful campaign.
The panel brought together successful biotech and medtech entrepreneurs to tell their stories of successfully raising capital. These are seasoned entrepreneurs who have been there done that and collectively have raised numerous private financing rounds and have exited multiple companies, with combined total deals exceeding $750 MM. They came to RESI San Diego to share their wisdom to fellow fundraising executives and provide insight in order to help their peers succeed.
RESI is a venue where early stage life science startups can meet with investors of every type that are a fit for their company’s technology and stage – and that includes family offices. RESI San Diego features two panels devoted to this elusive investor class – Biotech Family Offices and Medtech Family Offices. Whether you’re developing a novel therapeutic, an innovative device or an improved diagnostic solution, Family Offices can’t be overlooked as a potential source of capital and RESI will provide you with the opportunity to hear advice and insight directly from key investment decision makers from family offices.
RESI has always aimed to represent the diversity of capital sources for early stage life science companies; alongside sessions featuring VCs, pharma, angels, and other traditional sources of capital, LSN is proud to feature two sessions devoted to Family Offices that invest in new healthcare ventures. The Biotech Family Office sesssion features investors from five different firms who will cover the wide-ranging interests of family offices in the early stage drug development sector.
Moderated by Jayson Rieger (SVP of Business Development & Portfolio Management,PBM Capital), the panelists are:
If you’d be interested in hearing how these family offices source and assess biotech opportunities, and what you need to do to align your company with their investment ethos, you can register for RESI now.
The firm is focused on therapeutics companies and does not invest in medical devices, diagnostics, or digital health. The firm is open to considering assets of very early stages, even those as early as lead optimization phase. The firm considers various modalities, including antibodies, small molecules, and cell therapy. Currently, the firm is not interested in gene therapy. Indication-wise, the firm is most interested in oncology and autoimmune diseases but has recently looked at fibrotic diseases and certain rare diseases as well.
The firm is opportunistic across all subsectors of healthcare. Within MedTech, the firm is most interested in medical devices, artificial intelligence, robotics, and mobile health. The firm is seeking post-prototype innovations that are FDA cleared or are close to receiving clearance. Within therapeutics, the firm is interested in therapeutics for large disease markets such as oncology, neurology, and metabolic diseases. The firm is open to all modalities with a special interest in immunotherapy and cell therapy.
A strategic investment firm of a large global pharmaceutical makes investments ranging from $5 million to $30 million, acting either as a sole investor or within a syndicate. The firm is open to considering therapeutic opportunities globally, but only if the company is pursuing a market opportunity in the USA and is in dialogue with the US FDA.
The firm is currently looking for new investment opportunities in enterprise software, medical devices, and the healthcare IT space. The firm will invest in 510k devices and healthcare IT companies, and it is very opportunistic in terms of indications. In the past, the firm was active in medical device companies developing dental devices, endovascular innovation devices, and women’s health devices.
A venture capital firm founded in 2005 has multiple offices throughout Asia, New York, and San Diego. The firm has closed its fifth fund in 2017 and is currently raising a sixth fund, which the firm is targeting to be the largest fund to date. The firm continues to actively seek investment opportunities across a […]
Companies from all categories of life science are encouraged to apply to Innovation Challenge for RESI Healthtech Week. Eligible companies can apply to Day 1 the First Coast Innovator’s Gathering, Day 2 RESI Global Partnering or both. Applicants will have the opportunity for excellent visibility among investors and strategic partners.
By Samuel Rubin, Business Development Manager, LSN For the first time this fall, Life Science Nation (LSN) will have two days of competition as part of the RESI Healthtech Week (September 5-7, 2018). Day 1 will feature the First Coast Innovation Challenge, where the top 10 ranked companies of the First Coast tech hubs will present […]
By Jessica Yang, Investor Research Analyst, LSN On June 4th, more than 700 scientist-entrepreneurs and investors entered the exhibition hall at Boston Marriott Copley Place to participate in the RESI conference. They were greeted by 30 Innovation Challenge finalists across therapeutics, medical device, diagnostics, and digital health sectors. The 30 companies, evaluated by LSN’s expert […]
By James Huang, Research Analyst, LSN We are excited to showcase the top RESI Innovation Challenge startup applicants, who will be taking part in the poster presentation showcase at the second annual RESI BIO held in Boston this year, alongside the BIO International conference. These handpicked companies represent the key sectors of the healthcare space […]
An interview with Steven ten Holder, COO, Acorn Biolabs – By Greg Mannix, VP of International Business Development, LSN This year’s 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: […]
