BioScience Managers Australia

BioScience Managers is a venture capital life science investment firm headquartered in Melbourne, Australia. The group makes equity investments from $3M-5M and anticipates about 6 new investments this year. BioScience Managers invests globally. 

BioScience Managers will invest in companies across the life science space, including therapeutics, diagnostics and medical technology. The group does not invest in service providers. BioScience Managers considers all subsectors and indications, including orphan indications. The group will consider technology either in or prepared for human clinical trials and is open to all classes of devices. BioScience Managers seeks investments in novel technology and is not looking to gain share of an existing market. 

Investor Type
Biotech Phase of Development
Medtech Phase of Development
Capital Structure Preference
Investment Stage Preference
Jeremy Curnock Cook
Managing Director 
Amanda Gillon
Investment Analyst 
Matt McNamara
CIO 

Breakout Labs

Breakout Labs was founded by the Thiel Foundation in 211 and is based in San Francisco CA. Breakout Labs provides seed grants of $35 to 8-1 early stage companies per year. Companies must reach specific milestones in order to receive installments of the grant. Breakout Labs grants are in the form of a convertible note that if the company raises a Series A round will convert based on the Series A valuation, however if the company fails before raising a Series A round no debt will be due. Additionally when a portfolio company becomes revenue-generating or is acquired Breakout Labs receives a 3% royalty payment capped at 3x the value of the grant. Breakout Labs funds companies throughout the USA.
Lindy Fishburne
Executive Director 
Michelle Kim-Danely
Portfolio Manager 

Brio Device, LLC United States

Brio Device, LLC is a medical device company and spin-out of the University of Michigan Medical Innovation Center based in Ann Arbor, MI. Brio develops airway management devices and intubation instruments.

PROBLEM: High Intubation Failure  

There are 20M+ intubations performed in the US every year. Depending on setting and skill of the clinician, failure rates range from 2% - 40% resulting in approximately 2,000,000 intubation failures every year. Intubation, the procedure to insert a plastic tube into the trachea, requires significant expertise and experience to do well.  With current products in the market, the tube often is inserted multiple times before it is properly placed, resulting in damage to the patient such as broken teeth, torn vocal cords, or insertion into the stomach leading to aspiration and pneumonia.  Three main factors affect intubation success rates: the user’s experience level, having directional control of the tube during insertion, and continuous visualization appreciated in bronchoscopes.  Clinicians need a single go-to device which is appropriate for use both in routine intubation and difficult airway cases offering guidance, maneuverability and visualization necessary to be successful. Failed intubation is the most common preventable cause of trauma-related deaths.  Approximately 180,000 deaths per year list complications associated with failed intubation.

SOLUTION: Brio’s Articulating & Video Stylets  

Brio is introducing a suite of products intended to improve intubation success rates for planned and emergent intubations, minimizing reliance on clinician skill for success.  The products range from disposable mechanical devices to devices with imbedded software providing anatomic image recognition guidance for the clinician. The devices have three critical elements to assist users in locating the trachea and maneuvering the endotracheal tube. 

1. Articulating tip with thumb-controlled steering

2. Continuous visualization

3. Visual guidance software 

BUSINESS MODEL

Brio’s core competencies are R&D, product development, sales and marketing of medical devices.  Projections are built on three revenue streams: two disposable stylets (one with and one without a camera) and a reusable video display.   Brio has an agreement with a manufacturing partner to facilitate design history files, regulatory compliance, manufacturing and customer service.

FUNDING  & MILESTONES

Brio has received $815,000 funding, including $690K in non-dilutive grants and $125k in convertible notes.  The Company has received Small Business Investigational Research (SBIR) Grants from the NIH.  

Year Founded
2011
Main Sector
Indication
Medtech Phase of Development
Technology Overview

Brio suite of devices for intubation. The products are used to insert endotracheal tubes and are designed for first-attempt intubation success.

Key Features

  • Software algorithm recognizes anatomical landmarks and displays labels on video screen
  • Software displays optimal position of sytlet tip with a white “x” as the stylet advances through the airway
  • Visualization of the tip
  • Tip articulation

 

Benefits

  • Software enhanced visualization
  • Visually confirm success
  • Reduces time to intubate
  • Reduces tissue trauma

Alliance & Collaborations
Brio has its primary office and lab space within the medical device incubator and business accelerator facilities of MC3, Inc. The Company is considered a “Member” of MC3’s Medical Device Business Accelerator. Address: MC3, Inc. 3550 West Liberty, Suite 3, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48103. Manufacturing Partner Brio has an agreement with Summit Medical Products, Inc. based in Sandy, UT. The contract provides Brio with a team of experienced professionals from engineering, manufacturing, regulatory affairs, marketing and sales. Summit is engaged in the business of and possesses expertise with respect to, among other things, the manufacturing, assembling, processing, packaging, approvals and regulatory processes, and sales of medical devices. The strategic partnership Brio has with Summit is to assist in product design and development, process validation, risk management procedures, manufacturing, verification and validation, and quality assurance for the intubation device.
Supporting Metrics or Evidence

There are 20M+ intubations performed in the US every year. Depending on setting and skill of the clinician, failure rates range from 2% - 40% resulting in approximately 2,000,000 intubation failures every year.

Current Financing Needs

Current Financing Round: $1.5M ... Anticipated total paid-in-capital: $4.0M

Current Timeline

Completing design for manufacturing and pilot manufacturing. First generation product, FDA Class I exempt, enters the market in Q2 2015. Follow-on products to enter the market starting Q3 2016.

Current Investors

Convertible Notes: State of Michigan University Commercialization Fund, MC3, Inc., and Summit Medical

IP Status

PCT/US12/36290 submitted May, 2012. National Phase Patent Application Ser. No. 14/115,196 - Filed: Nov. 1, 2013.

Recent Milestones

Prototypes tested by groups of clinicians ranging from Residents to experienced specialists in simulation mannequins. First generation product being converted from 3D prototype to design for manufacturing and pilot manufacturing.

Management Team Highlights

Hannah Hensel, CEO, holds an MBA from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business and has 20+ years business leadership experience. A unique start-up experience for her took place as Sponsorship Sales & Marketing Manager for the 2002 Olympic Winter Games where she reported to Mitt Romney; the organization went from $0 to $1.5B in seven years. Product development for Brio is led by Laura McCormick, PhD in biomedical engineering, Douglas Mullen, PhD in nanotechnology/materials science and Sabina Siddiqui, MD. Brio's Commercialization Officer, Rich Borncamp, is the newest member of the team. He has spent his career launching new medical devices, establishing go-to-market plans nationally and internationally, and negotiating agreements with Group Purchasing Organizations.

Hannah Hensel
CEO 
Rich rborncamp@xmission.com
Commercialization Officer 

Chempetitive Group

Chempetitive Group is an integrated marketing communications agency focused exclusively on the life sciences. We work with biotech, medical device, pharmaceutical, chemical and tools/instrumentation companies of all sizes that around the globe. We develop winning strategies and campaigns that build brands and generate revenues. We love science. We understand science. And, we know how to effectively reach the scientific, clinical, medical and business communities that matter. 

Long live science. 

Visit us in San Diego, San Francisco, Chicago, Boston or Cambridge UK. 

Find out about us at http://www.chempetitive.com 

Erik Clausen
Erik Clausen
LinkedIn logo Managing Partner 
BIO

Erik Clausen is a managing partner at Chempetitive Group (http://www.chempetitive.com), a marketing communications firm that develops and implements strategies and drives results for life science and healthcare companies. Erik brings two decades of international experience helping life science, medical technology and healthcare organizations to reach and engage the right audiences.

Chiesi Ventures

Chiesi Ventures is a Venture Capital firm formed by a partnership between the Italian Pharmaceutical company Chiesi and US based VC firm Pappas Ventures. The firm is currently looking to make seed and venture stage investments into companies ranging anywhere from $2K to $5 million initially and up to $8 million over the life of the investment. The firm is actively seeking investment opportunities throughout the United States and Europe and could make as many as 2-4 new investments over the next year.
Art Pappas
Partner 

CitareTx Investment Partners

CitareTx founded in 2008 is a venture development and investment firm based in Houston Texas. The firm provides investment and incubation services to start-up and early-stage medical device companies. The firm provides seed capital (equity) ranging from $5K to $2M with follow-on capital of up to $5M. The firm also considers investment opportunities with smaller than typically accepted venture capital market size thresholds. The firm is geographically agnostic but prefers companies to be based in Texas. The firm is actively seeking new opportunities.

Jeffery Sheldon
General Partner & Managing Director 

Correlation Ventures United States

Correlation Ventures is a venture capital firm that founded in 2010 and is based in San Diego, California with an additional office in Palo Alto, California. The firm currently has approximately $165 million in total assets under management. The firm typically makes investments ranging from $0.25 million to $5 million over the life of the company, and the first investment will be not larger than $2.5 million. The firm’s preferred capital structure is convertible preferred equity or convertible loan. Correlation Ventures will consider invest in any industry segment at any stage, but there must be at least one other venture capital firm making their first investment in the company in this round. The firm only invests in US-based companies. 

Correlation is extremely opportunistic when it comes to investments in the life sciences space; with that being said the firm's specified sectors and sub sectors of interest may or may not be an area in which Correlation Ventures is currently looking to allocate capital to. The firm has made a number of investments in companies in the life sciences space, and has mainly invested in companies in the biotech therapeutics and diagnostics space. The firm's current portfolio includes biotech therapeutics and diagnostics firms developing products targeting endocrine, metabolic, and nutritional diseases, musculoskeletal system and connective tissue, neoplasms, cancer, and oncology, genitourinary system, and infectious and parasitic diseases.

Year Founded
2010
Investor Type
Medtech Phase of Development
Capital Structure Preference
Investment Stage Preference
David Coats
Managing Director 

Diamond BioFund Taiwan

Diamond BioFund is an evergreen fund that was established in 2013 and is based in Taipei City, Taiwan. The fund is operating from a committed capital of USD 300 million. The fund makes equity investments in early- to late-stage private businesses. Typical allocations range from USD 1.5 million to north of USD 10 million. The fund likes to lead investments in Taiwan-based businesses and co-invest in businesses overseas. The fund is currently seeking new opportunities in Taiwan, Greater China, Southeast Asia, US, Canada, and EU.

Diamond BioFund takes a generalist approach when considering life science opportunities, including therapeutics (small molecule and biologics), medical devices, diagnostics, healthcare services, and nutraceuticals. The fund is seeking cutting edge, innovative, and platform technology. In therapeutics, the fund considers all stages from preclinical through pre-IPO. In medical devices, the fund prefers later stage projects with proof of concept. The fund is open to all disease indications.

Investor Type
Biotech Phase of Development
Medtech Phase of Development
Capital Structure Preference
Investment Stage Preference
Winston Town
Vice President 
Haolin Sung
LinkedIn logo Director