A strategic consulting firm with offices in USA and China has a venture capital arm that invests in life sciences. Alongside investments, the firm advises life science companies on strategic partnerships (manufacturers, distributors) in the Asian market by providing resources in the network. In addition to a $10M fund closed at the end of 2016, the firm has a new ¥1 billion RMB (approx. $150M US dollar equivalent) fund which invests majorly in China local healthcare companies or helps the companies outside of China grow well in Asia market. The firm is seeking five new investments within the next year, and typically makes $1M – $5M dollar investments per company in Series B and C rounds. The firm focuses on the startups in U.S., China, Canada, and Europe based companies, though is open to companies on a global-level.
The firm is indication agnostic and open to technology in all sectors of life science (medical devices, therapeutics, diagnostics, and digital health) while having the most experience in biotech/medtech. In terms of phase of development, the firm requires the company to at least have a prototype, and for therapeutics to be in clinical trials, preferably after Phase 2. The firm will also look at on-the-market products of medical device, lab equipment and drug development enabling technology.
The firm requires the company to be in Series A, B, or C. The firm prefers the company to have or seek to have their technology or products in Asia market.
If you are interested in more information about this investor and other investors tracked by LSN, please email mandates@lifesciencenation.com.
Life Science Nation invites all eligible early stage life science companies to apply to Innovation Challenge to showcase their technologies.
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.
For the first time this fall, Life Science Nation will have two days of Innovation Challenge competition as part of the RESI Healthtech Week (September 5-7, 2018). The Innovation Challenge offers selected companies the chance to gain more visibility from the early-stage investors in attendance.
Day 2 Redefining Early Stage Investments
All early-stage life science companies are eligible to apply. Finalists will be highlighted in multiple outlets:
Your country and technology highlighted at the conference
All conference attendees will have the chance to “invest” RESI Cash in their favorite technologies
LSN Newsletter Announcement to a readership of 20,000+
Featured on RESI Conference website Featured in the printed and online program guide
Winners will be announced during the cocktail reception
It is FREE to apply, click here.
Day 1, First Coast Innovation Challenge
All early-stage life science companies from DC through Boston are eligible to apply. Applicants will be highlighted in multiple outlets:
10 finalists will be selected to pitch to a panel of investors
Applicants present a poster of their technology
All featured in the printed and online program guide
Attendees have access to partnering platform
Attendees have access to early-stage investor panels
Attendance on Day 1 for companies is $300, click here.
9 Hamilton Place, Suite 2B, Boston, MA 02108 +1 617-600-0668 | resi@lifesciencenation.com
The first half of 2018 has brought to the surface many debated topics not only for the United States but also the world—universal healthcare, innovation, and leadership. This year, headlines continue to arise almost daily detailing reforms to the healthcare system, while other countries continue to make advances in their universal healthcare programs. One of the biggest corporations in the world, Amazon, is accelerating their involvement in the healthcare industry with big-name partnerships, leadership appointments, and strategic acquisitions. They’ve also recently purchased office space in Boston, MA, one of the biggest life science hubs in the world—where Life Science Nation (LSN) began its focus on helping early-stage life science companies seeking capital.
The urgency in healthcare.
Life Science Nation was founded with the intention to move life science innovation forward for a real impact on the global development of healthcare, which has only become more urgent. Throughout LSN’s experience supporting life science companies, lack of access to capital is holding back the advancement of many life science companies. LSN dedicates itself to helping early-stage companies navigate the funding ‘Valley of Death’, which is why LSN created a new three-day event called RESI Healthtech Week. Today, LSN will discuss the benefit of attending Day 1, the First Coast Innovator’s Gathering, for tech hubs across the northeast with technologies or companies looking to change the future of healthcare.
What is the First Coast?
The First Coast, as LSN has deemed it, is the location identified as the premier hub for life science innovation, similar to how Silicon Valley is viewed as the premier (and original) tech hub. Over the years the First, Second, and Third Coast have been identified as hubs across the country made up of different states including Houston and New York City. All have been vying to be central locations for massive innovation in the life sciences. However, Life Science Nation takes the First Coast to include the entire northeast corridor, from DC to MA, including all the premier universities and research institutions in the region.
RESI Healthtech Week’s new First Coast Innovator’s Gathering is focused on expanding the traditional Redefining Early Stage Investments (RESI) Conference to include more nascent technologies and companies in the life science space. By bringing together innovators from the entire northeast corridor with global investors and strategic partners, LSN promotes a one-of-a-kind opportunity for the advancement of healthcare innovation.
Who are the best-fit attendees?
Day 1 will feature the next generation of healthcare innovation and their earliest stage companies from the northeast region: DC, MD, PA, NJ, NY, RI, CT, and MA—now known as First Coast, who are invited to participate in a day of partnering and networking.
Qualifying First Coast Day 1 registrants are the northeast corridor incubators, accelerators, tech transfer offices, university translation initiatives, hospitals, research labs and their constituents as well as the investors and partners that seek them.
Ideal candidates include those seeing funding anywhere from $15k to $2M from grants, seed, and angel funding.
Affordability
LSN created an affordable registration price that will facilitate more startups attending the three-day event. Tickets start at only $500 for tech hubs (includes two tickets) and $300 for each additional constituent member. The pricing structure and benefits are presented in the chart below.
Showcase Your Technologies.
The conference will include ample opportunities for you to represent and showcase your technologies to global investors and strategic partners. This includes exhibiting, online features and placements, as well as a competition for a spot to pitch investors during the First Coast Innovation Challenge.
The exhibit hall has limited space for one exhibit table per tech hub (as space allows). Each organization can have up to 5 poster boards for their table to showcase their tech hub members and constituents.
In addition, all tech hubs will be featured in the RESI Healthtech Week Program Guide. Their technologies represented by their constituents and tech hub members will be featured on the newsletter and website with a datasheet.
All qualifying First Coast registrants are eligible to apply for the First Coast Innovation Challenge where the top 5 finalists will give 10-minute pitches to an elite panel of investor judges from 3:00-5:00 during the First Coast Innovator’s Gathering. This will be a rewarding opportunity to pitch your technologies and receive valuable feedback.
Access to global investors.
LSN’s network of early-stage global investors will be able to see all the key players in one place and learn about the innovative technologies coming out of the First Coast.
A day of partnering and networking.
Day 1 of the RESI Healthtech Week will feature the First Coast Innovator’s Gathering; partnering and networking opportunities, just like it’s traditional RESI.
The RESI Partnering Platform helps you find nontraditional partners from the newest sources of capital, including family offices, foundations, academic institutions, and philanthropic organizations that will be a fit for your technology and stage of development. Attendees can schedule up to 16 meetings using the Partnering Platform. It will open one month before the conference, so companies, global investors, and strategic partners can request and book meetings in advance. Some key highlights of the Partnering Platform include:
Review profiles of other RESI Conference participants.
Schedule one-on-one and/or group meetings.
Build your customized RESI Conference schedule, from panels to presentations to partnering meetings.
The system will be available one month before and one month after the conference for ease of use.
Launches August 6th for RESI Healthtech Week (September 5-6th) partnering.
In addition to the Partnering Platform, attendees can also participate in ad hoc meetings at exhibit tables and poster boards throughout the day.
Venue Information
The First Coast Innovator’s Gathering will take place at the Boston Marriott Copley Place, 110 Huntington Ave, Boston, MA 02116, on September 5th, 2018 followed by the traditional Redefining Early Stage Investments Conference on September 6th, and the Entrepreneur’s Academy Workshop Series on September 7th.
Registration starts at 7 AM. Exhibit halls and meetings are available from 8 AM to 5 PM.
In conclusion…
Life Science Nation will continue to connect early-stage companies with global investors and strategic partners through RESI Conferences and first-in-class data platforms, in the hope that downstream we can help bring treatments to the patients that need them. As the landscape for healthcare and healthcare policy changes, so too will LSN in order to meet the needs of the early-stage players.
By Dennis Ford, Founder & CEO, Life Science Nation; Creator of RESI Conference Series & RESI Healthtech Week
If you haven’t heard, Life Science Nation provides consulting services for branding and messaging, both critical to the fundraising process. The LSN mantra is, “We echo to our clients what the investors tell us they want to see”. Through conversations with investors through the years, LSN has the knowledge to help shape your marketing collateral to address what investors are looking for, whether you meet during a RESI Conference or on your own time.
Top Three Pieces of Marketing Collateral You Need
There are three key marketing documents investors generally evaluate to form a first impression of your company: the executive summary, pitch deck, and company website. These three pieces of content have one purpose: they serve to whet the target investor/partner’s appetite and convince them to request a meeting with you and start a dialogue. Below is a list of all supporting marketing collateral you may need for your fundraising campaign. This article will go into further detail on the executive summary, pitch deck, and website and what the content should highlight.
Marketing collateral every entrepreneur needs.
If you are looking for more detailed information on defining and developing your marketing collateral, please read Chapter 6 of Dennis Ford’s book, “The Life Science Executive’s Fundraising Manifesto“.
What “value” does your business add?
One key takeaway from all your marketing collateral should be the value of your company and its technology. Investors want to easily understand your message and value-add right away, no matter what the marketing collateral. Investors tend to be very busy, but if you can pique their initial interest, you will have plenty of opportunity to provide more information as the dialogue unfolds. The investor does not want to have difficulty understanding your company value so make sure you have a clear message for them.
There is no standardization.
Many of our clients go through a learning curve due to the lack of standardization of the fundraising collateral (executive summary etc.) required by investors. This makes it extremely difficult to provide a course on the basics of fundraising branding and messaging. This has led to the service we provide, creating custom marketing collateral.
An investor can receive as many as 100 solicitations per week. Investors have become experts at skimming and looking for a spark to ignite their interest. If that is not found, they quickly move on to the next opportunity.
How to get started.
An executive summary (ES) is typically no more than 2 pages and can be accompanied by a visual PowerPoint (your pitch deck) of 10-12 slides. Usually, they are sent together when you reach out for an initial introduction as it provides the investor with key background information upfront. The goal is to move them from either document to your website for more detailed content.
Here are five main points we have learned regarding the ES and pitch deck.
Send both an executive summary and a pitch deck. Some folks click on an executive summary and others click on the deck. Most investors have an innate preference for one or the other. Since you won’t know before reaching out, LSN recommends that you send out both.
The executive summary is the story of your company and how you got to your current state.
The pitch deck should reflect what is in the executive summary, but in bullet form, with the addition of more information that shows the value-add of your firm and product.
The pitch deck is your tool to present your company position to investors, therefore replacing your voice. It needs to stand completely on its own because it is read in your absence. Unlike a standard deck used for a presentation with bullets designed to trigger your dialogue, the pitch is being read as it is. The challenge is to be able to deliver the complete message with as few, concise words as possible and no need for a presenter.
Remember, it’s the investor’s first introduction to your company. The investor will not have the full context, and therefore some level of contextual detail may be necessary.
Your website represents your company brand.
Your company website is a detailed representation explaining your company and its technology. It needs to offer a “deep dive” on the company and team, more detailed than is possible in your executive summary and pitch deck. The website should provide all of the detail and context that tell the full story of your company and its value. Even so, it is necessary to maintain consistency with your language and provide a clear message.
If done right and the message comes across, then the target partner will be able to assess that you’re a good fit and decide to initiate a conversation. The executive summary, the pitch deck and the website are all created for one reason – to give enough compelling information that an investor decides to initiate the first meeting.
Remember, it’s about the buyer: a busy investor with cash to allocate. Keep in mind they will do a quick scan of your deck and executive summary. They will be looking for something that will impart enough interest that they will want to have a chat with you and your firm.
Life Science Nation knows summertime can be a lull for fundraising, with many investors out of the office. This can make it more challenging and extend a fundraising campaign. LSN spoke with one of the investors attending and speaking at the RESI Healthtech Week this fall, asking him to share his insights into an often-overlooked resource in the fundraising process—foundations as investors.
Jim Golubieski, President of New Jersey Health Foundation and its affiliate, Foundation Venture Capital Group, LLC, will be speaking on the “Foundations” panel, sharing his insights and experience. It will discuss non-profit organizations that provide support and funding to early-stage startups.
Below are the answers to two questions asked by Life Science Nation.
What will RESI attendees learn from you?
Jim: “The most important takeaway from my session would be for attendees to know that many foundations and other not-for-profit organizations are no longer simply fundraising organizations but can also be great sources of capital funding that might be overlooked. It is also important to explore all avenues when seeking funding – attendees should research individual foundations to see what types of organizations and projects they fund, to explore if their missions and goals are compatible with their own.”
What makes you excited to attend RESI?
Jim: “From a strategic perspective, attending RESI means that all the components needed for early-stage investment opportunities are under one roof, in one place at one time, to meet with and explore the entire funding cycle. The opportunity to talk with our colleagues—investors, CEOs, scientists, entrepreneurs and potential partners— is an exciting concept.”
The Foundations Panel will be held on Day 1 – First Coast Innovator’s Gathering
Wednesday, September 5th, 2018 at 2:00 PM – 2:50 PM
Panel topics to be discussed may include:
What is the foundation’s preferred stage of development when supporting companies?
How to approach foundations for fundraising.
What criteria do non-profits use to evaluate opportunities?
What are the differences between support from non-profit investors compared to for-profit investors?
When foundations support startups, it is with an eye to their mission as opposed to profit. These missions can range from regional development to advancement of a cure or treatments for a particular disease. Foundations play an important role in the fundraising landscape, often assisting companies to grow to the level required by more traditional investors. Panelists will discuss their approach to supporting early-stage companies and how these companies can benefit from a partnership with a foundation.
James M. Golubieski is President of New Jersey Health Foundation and its affiliate, Foundation Venture Capital Group, LLC, a company that provides pre-seed funding to new health-related startup companies founded by New Jersey researchers to help them advance toward commercialization.
Mr. Golubieski works closely with the companies in which Foundation Venture has invested, sits on their Boards and provides guidance in helping them to develop their business models.
Previously he had been CFO of Array Medical, Inc., a medical device start-up company established in 1995 that developed a groundbreaking blood test to test platelet function. The company was sold in 1999. Mr. Golubieski was also the chief operating officer and senior executive vice president of Glendale National Bank and a member of its board of directors, president of Glendale Investment Corp. and Glendale Mortgage Services, Inc. and chief financial officer of Glendale Bancorp, which was acquired by Mellon Financial. For 10 years prior he had been with KPMG.
It can be challenging to perfect your fundraising strategy in order to accelerate your work. As a past marketing and business development focused entrepreneur I’ve been exposed to the fundraising environment outside of the life science and healthcare industry. It may be counter-intuitive, but fundraising processes (as well as constructing partnerships) are similar across different industries except for their smaller nuances. Scientist-entrepreneurs and fundraising CEOs need to know that a clear value proposition made up of your tagline, executive summary and more will be the differentiating factor in progressing your discussions with investors past the initial conversation. The ones who can share their value proposition with the most clarity, are the ones investors will move forward with for fundraising opportunities. Here are some fundamentals everyone needs to know.
Entrepreneurs know it takes a lot of hard work, dedication, and funds to make a company successful. If you’re new to the fundraising sphere within the life science and healthcare industry, you may be unsure what to prioritize and where to start. Life Science Nation (LSN) is a company focused on providing resources and conferences focused on initiating new opportunities for strategic partnerships and fundraising activities. LSN makes it as straightforward and simple as possible so you can maximize your success. That means having a solid understanding of the fundraising process and knowing what steps to take in order to execute a deal or partnership.
Define Your Value Proposition
At the foundation, it’s imperative to understand your own branding and communicate it clearly to your constituents. If you don’t understand your product, services, and goals, they won’t either. This includes clearly defining your addressable market and growth potential to global investors and strategic partners. Otherwise, it will be an upward battle to convince them to support you as a partner or financially. If you then consider that it takes 6-18 months to fundraise (always longer than hoped or expected), clarity for your mission becomes crucial to speeding up the fundraising or partnership process.
LSN wants companies to be ready for the initial conversations so they can get to the next phase sooner. The next conversations are where you work through the deals and partnerships, and not stumbling over the value proposition for too long. Know your product set, it’s development stage, and how it fits into investors mandates and requirements. Make sure you have these to share verbally as well as through marketing materials: an executive summary, pitch deck, etc.
Create and Curate an Investor Database
Now that you’ve defined your company, goals, and growth potential, it’s time to create a target list of investors or strategic partners. This can be a daunting task and normally starts by networking with current, established relationships. This is a great starting point to expand your network, and will usually provide hot leads for best matches. LSN expands upon this by opening up companies and investors to their network of constituents. It is a real advantage, where other industries have to rely solely on their personal connections.
Match Your Company Product Set with Investor Mandates
If you can match you and your company with the right fit people for you, then it’s a lot easier to start having those initial conversations that lead up to deals and strategic partnerships. Since this is a challenge, LSN chose to specialize and develop its company to connect products, services, and capital to support individual efforts to target an investor audience and network with potential matches.
LSN created a two-sided platform: ‘For Company’ side and a ‘For Investors’ side. It’s intuitive search functions make it easy to use for sourcing information for deals and partnerships. At its core, it saves potential strategic partners, investors, and fundraising CEOs time on research, so they can instead focus on the important tasks of engaging in conversations that match their interests–filling the pipeline for new opportunities which in turn accelerate businesses, technology, and deals.
The LSN Company Platform (for investors and strategic partners) is the premier life science company database, covering over 50,000 companies from around the world, with a particular focus on the earliest stage companies who have been missed by traditional data providers.
The LSN Investor Platform (for companies) includes present and future-looking investor data collected and curated by LSN’s Investor Research team through ongoing dialogue with LSN’s 5,000 life science investors from around the world. The team updates the database to only include active investors who are currently allocating funds to projects and companies that fit their mandate requirements.
The Investor Platform:
Includes investors from 10 categories: Angels, Corporate Venture Capital, Endowments/Foundations, Family Offices, Government Organizations, Hedge Funds, Institutional Alternative Investor, Large Pharma/Biotech, PE, and Venture Captial.
Track goals and requirements over the next year for investors
Facilitates targeted deal flow so investors are a fit for you
The LSN Platforms include:
Portal with filters to identify potential leads for you: location, investor types, product sets, investment interest section, phases, etc.
LSN’s Investor Platform includes mandates, differentiating them from other databases
By mentioning your connection to LSN, it facilitates your connections and provides credibility
After completing your target list, you’ll realize warm introductions mean a lot in propelling the conversations forward, past the initial talks. That’s why Life Science Nation created the Redefining Early Stage Investments (RESI) conference. LSN knew entrepreneurs and fundraising CEO’s needed a central location with access to potential global investors and strategic partners. With limited time and much to do as a startup, they need tools and resources to work efficiently. While networking is crucial to any company’s success in sourcing new opportunities, RESI is the best within the life science industry in providing such a venue.
The Redefining Early Stage Investments (RESI) Conference is an ongoing conference series that provides an international venue for early-stage life science companies to connect with global investors and strategic partners for new opportunities, all in one place. This includes interests across Biotech, Medtech, Diagnostics and Digital Health in order to create new relationships in these areas as well as the potential to secure funding. RESI is unique and the leading conference in partnerships due to its global network presence, unmatched by other conferences in the healthcare industry. It provides constituents with the best venue for partnering and networking.
The RESI Conference:
Occurs 5x per year
Includes ad hoc meeting opportunities
Partnering Forum for up to 16 scheduled meetings
Panels by investors, sponsors, partners discussing all things healthcare and fundraising
LSN 5,000 Investor network is always invited to attend
Now that you’ve learned the fundamentals for your fundraising strategies and partnership opportunities, you can start defining your value proposition, creating a target audience, and network with the right people.
Life Science Nation Connects Products, Services, and Capital
Our corporate structure is made up of a few different business models with the same mission to accelerate therapeutics, biotech, medtech, diagnostics, and digital health within the healthcare industry. LSN started out developing a database of investors because the company felt there was not enough accessibility for investors to discover scientists-entrepreneurs and fundraising CEOs within the life sciences. Further down the line, LSN created a conference series to further accelerate and support initial conversations between these groups so progress could be made in leaps and bounds. As we continue to develop in our current political environment, it has become more important than ever to continue supporting and facilitating advances in healthcare.
A financially driven corporate life science venture fund of a global pharmaceutical company, invests with the purpose of fostering innovation, driving significant patient benefit, and generating superior returns by creating and investing in innovative life science companies at various stages of their development, independent from the corporate’s strategy. The firm has offices in USA and Europe, and focuses its investment activities in these countries. The firm typically makes equity investments in early venture rounds, investing up to $25 million over multiple financing rounds with 6-8 investments in any given year.
The firm invests in therapeutics with a focus on pre-IND assets and Series A investment rounds. The firm is interested in all classes and indications of innovative therapeutics with paradigm shifting potential.
The firm invests exclusively in privately held companies and aims to be a lead or co-lead with a director position.
If you are interested in more information about this investor and other investors tracked by LSN, please email mandates@lifesciencenation.com.
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 […]
Next Phase Newsletter 