Sound Affects

Sound Affects is a philanthropic organization based in Westport CT. Sound Affects is a nonprofit crowdfunding platform that will provide non-dilutive research grants to for-profit life science companies developing products in the oncology sector. Sound Affects? grant sizes are variable depending on project needs with current projects seeking to raise between $5 and $5, the amount of funding sought should be sufficient to reach the next product development milestone. Sound Affects is potentially open to funding about 4 further projects and is best placed to work with entrepreneurs based in the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic region of the USA but is also open to proposals from outside this region. In addition to direct crowdfunding Sound Affects will in the future provide additional resources via a matching fund.
Mona Jhaveri
Executive Director 

Symbient Product Development United States

Rapid Development of Injection Molded Medical Devices
From Concept Through Transfer-to-Manufacturing

Symbient specializes in engineering research and development, prototyping and design-for-manufacturing of innovative medical devices that use injection molded components. Our highly experienced team consists of mechanical and biomedical engineers, industrial designers, machinists and molding technicians. They leverage our in-house rapid prototyping, and prototype tooling fabrication and injection molding to create proven, manufacturable designs with unmatched speed, efficiency and precision. These designs make up our deep portfolio of over 300 successful devices that have collectively generated hundreds of millions of dollars. They include FDA Class I, II and III devices, developed under our ISO 13485 certified quality management system.

 

Our Services Include:

  • Concept Development
  • Development Engineering
  • Design-for-Manufacturing
  • Industrial Design
  • Project Rescue
  • Design Control per IOS 13485
  • Finite Element Analysis (FEA)
  • Design Verification Testing
  • Test Method Development
  • Transfer to Manufacturing

 

Our In-House Capabilities and Expertise Include:

  • Stereolithography (SLA) Prototyping
  • CNC Machining / Fabrication
  • Prototype Mold Fabrication
  • Prototype Injection Molding of Devices for Testing, Trials and Studies
  • Liquid Injection Molded (LIM) Silicone Prototype Molding
  • Product Reliability Testing
  • Plastics Assembly Expertise: Ultrasonic and Laser Welding, Heat Sealing, Pressure Sensitive Adhesives, Swaging, Snap Fits, Press Fits, Interlocks.
  • Speed: Prototype Molds in as little as 1 week and Modifications in as little as 1 Day
  • Material Selection Expertise, Research and Testing to Ensure All Product Requirements Are Met.

 

Our Portfolio Includes:

  • Diagnostics / Molecular Diagnostics
  • Sample collection / preparation
  • Life Sciences / Microfluidics
  • OTC Consumer products
  • Respiratory
  • Surgical devices and clinical tools
  • Drug Delivery

 

Year Founded
2004
Unique Capabilities

Our Services Include:

  • Concept Development
  • Development Engineering
  • Design-for-Manufacturing
  • Industrial Design
  • Project Rescue
  • Design Control per IOS 13485
  • Finite Element Analysis (FEA)
  • Design Verification Testing
  • Test Method Development
  • Transfer to Manufacturing

 

Our In-House Capabilities and Expertise Include:

  • Stereolithography (SLA) Prototyping
  • CNC Machining / Fabrication
  • Prototype Mold Fabrication
  • Prototype Injection Molding of Devices for Testing, Trials and Studies
  • Liquid Injection Molded (LIM) Silicone Prototype Molding
  • Product Reliability Testing
  • Plastics Assembly Expertise: Ultrasonic and Laser Welding, Heat Sealing, Pressure Sensitive Adhesives, Swaging, Snap Fits, Press Fits, Interlocks.
  • Speed: Prototype Molds in as little as 1 week and Modifications in as little as 1 Day
  • Material Selection Expertise, Research and Testing to Ensure All Product Requirements Are Met.
Lisa Coyne
Business Development Manager 
Luke Helm
Director of Business Development 

Syncona Partners United Kingdom

Syncona Partners, founded in 2012, is an evergreen investment firm based in London, UK. The firm is an independent subsidiary of the Wellcome Trust who invested the initial £200m capitalization. The firm is mandated to invest in companies with the potential to make major breakthroughs in healthcare. The investment size will usually range from £1M – £20M per company. The firm seeks to create sustainable, profitable businesses, to support them with capital over the long term, for the benefit of patients, and to hold an ownership position to create value for the Wellcome Trust. The firm is actively screening new investment opportunities.

Year Founded
2012
Biotech Phase of Development
Medtech Phase of Development
Capital Structure Preference
Investment Stage Preference
Chris Hollowood
Partner 

Tech Coast Angels

Founded in 1997, Tech Coast Angels is the largest angel investor group in the United States. Its members provide funding and guidance to more early-stage high-growth companies in Southern California than any other investment group. TCA members invest in companies in a wide range of industries including life sciences, biotech and health IT. TCA has more than 325 members including its venture capital affiliates in five networks in Los Angeles Orange County San Diego Westlake/Santa Barbara and the Inland Empire. The organization will finance on an opportunistic basis as long as substantial disruptive market opportunities exists. The firm has historically invested in Biotech Therapeutics & Diagnostics, Biotechnology R&D Services, Biotechnology Other, Medical Technology companies with sub sectors of Anti-Infectives, Bioinformatics, CRO (Contract Research Organization), Diagnostic Instrumentation, Diagnostic Services, Drug Delivery, Food, Industrial Biotechnology, Small Molecules, Small Molecule Therapeutics, Wound Care and indications including Diseases of the Nervous System, Infectious and Parasitic Diseases, Neoplasms/Cancer/Oncology, Respiratory.

Websites:
www.greenwingsbiomedical.com
techcoastangels.com

Investor Type
Biotech Phase of Development
Medtech Phase of Development
Capital Structure Preference
Investment Stage Preference
Richard Koffler
Member 

Thrive Bioscience, Inc. United States

Thrive Bioscience is commercializing automated, analytical cell management laboratory instruments with integrated disposables. Thrive systems target the existing manual cell culture market ($8B), the cell-based assay market ($14B) and multi-billion dollar emerging markets for cell therapeutics. Thrive systems monitor, maintain, and passage cell lines, as well as run assays and generate large amounts of previously unavailable data.

Current methods of cell culture, developed more than 50 years ago, are now a major bottleneck holding back research and medicine, and cost society billions of dollars annually in waste and lost opportunity. Thrive Bioscience is the first company to wholly automate cell culture in research, diagnostic, and therapeutic markets.

Cell culture, especially the growth of human and other mammalian cells, is a fundamental tool used in science and medicine. As an example, the market for cell-based assays used in drug discovery accounts for $14B annually. One of the most rapidly growing and emerging segments requiring automated cell culture is the personal cell-based therapeutics market, for which human cells are genetically engineered, and then re-implanted into a patient.

Website:
thrivebio.com
Year Founded
2014
Main Sector
Medtech Subsector
Medtech Phase of Development
Current Financing Needs

Have raised $3M of a $4M round and seeking investors to complete the round.

Current Investors

Life Science Angels, Finney Capital and several seed investors.

Management Team Highlights

Management Team

·       CEO, Gary Paul Magnant -- Serial bio-tools entrepreneur; 3 prior successful exits; formerly Sage Science, MJ Research, ThermoCeramix, Owl Scientific

·       COO/CFO, Thomas Forest Farb -- Serial healthcare-centric entrepreneur; numerous successful exits and IPOs; formerly MedicaMetrix, Indevus Pharma, Interneuron Pharma, Cytyc

·       CSO, Alan Blanchard, PhD -- Numerous commercial instrumentation successes in DNA sequencing & DNA microarrays at Agencourt Personal Genomics and Lilly

·       VP Engineering & Manufacturing, Brian Foley -- Former Head of Technology & Engineering at Merck Millipore; numerous products developed and launched

Board of Directors

·       Guy Broadbent -- Former President of Laboratory Products Division of Thermo-Fisher Scientific; former CEO of XcellerX (acquired by GE Healthcare)

·        Michael Finney, PhD -- Managing Director of Finney Capital; former Co-Founder and CSO of MJ Research; Board Member of Sage Science

Tom Farb
Chief Operating Officer 

Twin Cities Angels Fund II, LLC United States

Twin Cities Angels is an angel group that was founded in 2006 that is based in Minnesota. The group has raised two funds that are The Twin Cities Angels Fund I and II. The second fund is currently looking to invest in emerging companies. The group typically provides seed and venture capital ranging from $ 25.000 to $2 million to life science companies. The group plans to invest in 4 to 6 companies per year. Twin Cities Angels seeks to invest in companies based in the Twin Cities Area of Minneapolis/St. Paul, the state of Minnesota and within a reasonable distance, such as Western Wisconsin, Northern Iowa, and Eastern Dakotas.

Year Founded
2006
Investor Type
Biotech Phase of Development
Medtech Phase of Development
Capital Structure Preference
Investment Stage Preference
John Alexander
Chairman & Founder 

Ventac Partners United States

Ventac Partners is a dedicated life science investment and consulting firm with offices in Europe, USA and Asia. Ventac Partners has a strong track record in founding new innovative companies, fund raising and supporting M&A transactions.

All partners are experienced and hands-on life science entrepreneurs with proven track-record in successfully starting, funding, growing and expanding international life science companies.

Neil Thomas
Neil Thomas
LinkedIn logo Partner 

Walter Greenblatt & Associates United States

Our clients are early-stage biotechnology, medical device, diagnostics and pharmaceutical service companies. When we begin working with a client they are frequently looking to complete proof-of-concept studies, secure intellectual property and other critical preliminary tasks. Typically we raise the first round ($1 - $5 million of capital) needed to accomplish these milestones, usually, but not always from angel investors. After key milestones have been achieved using that money, we generally follow by raising a second round of $5-20 million, usually institutional money, for development and growth

By working this way, we increase our clients' success rate raising capital and building their companies and the returns to the investors we bring into those companies. We have raised over $80 million in early stage funding for our clients (in Seed, Series A and Series B rounds) and delivered realized returns, so far, over $500 million—a realized return to date of over 6X—to the investors who provided that early stage capital, with a number of the companies still driving towards an exit that may increase that figure. Realized (cash-on-cash) internal rates of return for a hypothetical investor who participated in each round of financing offered by WG&A to date exceeds 65% annually.

Walter Greenblatt
Managing Director 

Wellington Partners Germany

Wellington Partners is a venture capital firm based in Munich, Germany, with an additional office in Zurich, Switzerland. The firm specializes in early-stage and growth capital investments in the Technology and Life Sciences sector. The firm has approximately €800M AUM and is currently investing out of a €100M fund for Life Science companies. Depending on the stage of the company, the firm can allocate up to €10M over the life of the investment. The firm can also lead or co-lead financing rounds of up to €30M or higher with syndicates. The firm focuses on European companies but will consider US-based companies with activities in Europe. The firm is actively seeking new investment opportunities.

Year Founded
1990
Biotech Phase of Development
Medtech Phase of Development
Capital Structure Preference
Investment Stage Preference
Rainer Strohmenger
General Partner 

WuXi Venture Fund United States

WuXi Venture Fund is the corporate venture arm of WuXi AppTec, a multinational CRO based in Shanghai China with multiple offices across China and the United States. The fund makes equity investments into technology and life science companies to enhance or leverage WuXi AppTec's platform capabilities. The investment size will be varied based on a case-by-case basis. The firm invests in life science companies across the globe with an emphasis in China and the US.

Alexis Ji
Principal 
Sofie Qiao
Managing Director