We are a VC fund focused on investing in early-stage companies in the healthcare sector: biotechnology, medical devices and eHealth.
Invivo Ventures is managed by Invivo Capital Partners, promoted by Luis Pareras and Albert Ferrer, with the experience gained through the first fund Healthequity. The fund was registered to the Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores (CNMV) in March 2019 and has achieved a final closing of 60M €.
We are a team of highly qualified professionals, with the scientific, technical and financial know-how required to analyse and make investments to provide value to the invested company. We also have a network of contacts and key strategic relationships in the health ecosystem.
Our company is financed by the European Investment Fund, the Instituto de Crédito Oficial, the Institut Català de Finances, the Institut Valencià de Finances, the Ajuntament de Barcelona and other private investors.
Projects
We seek projects according to the following criteria:
Investment size
We set initial investments in the range of 0.5-2M €, and after achieving pre-established milestones we can reach up to 4M €.
State of development
We focus on investing in companies in early stages, mainly in the technology transfer phase. In the case of biotechnology companies, they should have a solid proof of concept in animal models, and in the case of medical devices or digital health companies, a prototype close to the market.
Geographical focus
We invest in Spain a significant amount of the funds raised, while a smaller percentage is considered for investments syndicated with other funds in European companies.
Sector
We want to diversify risks by investing in companies in different stages and different sub-sectors within the biomedical area, such as biotechnology, medical devices and digital health.
Healthequity is a VC fund focused on investing in early-stage companies in the Healthcare sector. Promoted by the Medical Association of Barcelona and the financial group Riva y Garcia, it was registered with the CNMV and founded in 2012.
The fund finished its first investment period in early 2019.
SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY FUTURE DIRECTIONS / Synthetic Biology offers new ways for engineering new biological systems or re-designing existing ones for useful purposes. It is a disruptive technology at the heart of the so-called Bioeconomy, capable of delivering new solutions to global healthcare, but also in many other fields like agriculture, manufacturing, and environmental challenges. Not long ago, in May 2010, a team of scientists led by Craig Venter achieved a synthetic biology milestone by designing the genes for a new type of bacteria and implanting them in a bacterial shell that had its genome removed. The empty cell behaved like a factory programmed with human-designed genetic code. It was the first living being to escape the evolutionary tree, with a computer-programmed genome synthesized by chemical compounds, implanted in a cell, and subsequently multiplied under the control of that artificial genetic code. It opened the way to extraordinary developments in biology and medicine that are starting to blossom now. But we have a lot of work ahead. This quick_note tries to systematize the progressive steps in our quest to design “therapeutic life” #quick_notes_lp
Solving real problems requires commitment and focus. Here’s some advice for scientists willing to become entrepreneurs, six things you should think about before embarking on your journey:
(1) UNDERSTAND BIOTECH ECOSYSTEM/ Be aware of what creates and what destroys value, and understand why VCs prefer good problems to solve, big clinical needs, accelerated regulatory pathways and a big delta in what the drug will do for patients: USE IT TO IMPROVE YOUR POSITIONING
(2) UNDERSTAND YOUR COMPANY/ Ask yourself what open questions still remain unsolved in your field (they’ll lead you to clinical needs), and see the landscape of strategies to solve your particular clinical need: are you competitive enough? STAND OUT FROM THE CROWD
(3) FROM SOLOIST TO ORCHESTRA/ Find the right CEO (maybe yourself, but some other times someone else more experienced) and the right team that will make it possible… At first the team will be small but always bear in mind entrepreneurship is not an individual game
(4) CONTACT YOUR TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER OFFICE (research center, hospital…) or alternatively experts and consultants to think carefully about the whole process, the intellectual property, some initial understanding of the regulatory pathway, license negotiations to spin out, etc.
(5) FINE TUNE PoC/ Find your WOW slide, the experimental setting and results that will convince everyone that this is worth doing and that your way of solving the problem actually works… You’ll probably need to further improve it after visiting VCs, yes, but always aim for top quality experiments
(6) FUNDRAISE / Go find capital (non-dilutive from grants first, if possible), understand how VCs will analyze your project and try to capture their attention. The process iterates non-stop, go back to (1) to further understand your sector and start again to perfect your pitch
#quick_notes_lp
Retinal diseases remain a difficult problem to solve because (1) the retina is in a sense a biological computer that needs to be properly “rewired”, (2) animal models are poor because they have no fovea, (3) the internal limiting membrane (ILM) limits delivery, and (4) regeneration of mammalian retinal is absent. However, very promising strategies are emerging, here is a conceptual map of the most interesting approaches to solve the problem. #quick_notes_lp
Fondo financiado por FEDER:
