Texo Ventures United States

TEXO Ventures is a healthcare venture capital firm that was founded in 29 and is based in Austin Texas. The firm operates as a hybrid of angel and venture capital. The recent fund closed at $15.4 million in 212. The firm focuses on making equity investments in the Medical Technology and Healthcare IT spaces at near commercialization or early commercialization stage. The firm typically invests ranging from $3 million to $5 million into a company. The firm plans to make 2-3 investments over the next 6-9 month. TEXO Ventures is open to consider companies across the US. The firm primarily focuses on healthcare which includes Health IT Technology  enabled Health Services Chronic Disease Management Managed Care and Benefit Design. Although medical devices and functional diagnostics are considered for investment purposes Texo Ventures must see a clear regulatory pathway and obvious synergies with healthcare reform within a company. The firm's current investment portfolio includes companies in the area of medical technology. Within this field they are in areas such as diagnostic and therapeutic radiation devices electro mechanical medical devices re-usable instruments biomaterials and non-active implantable.

Philip Sanger
Managing Partner 

Torrey Pines Investment

Torrey Pines Investment (TPI) was founded in 22 and is based in San Diego CA. The firm has raised two funds and also invests in drug development via a partnership with BioMotiv. TPI makes venture-stage minority equity investments and prefers act as a co-investor but also leads rounds on occasion. The firm invests internationally.

Ron Demuth
President 

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 

TYLT Lab

TYLT Lab was founded in 213 and has offices in Santa Monica CA and in Hong Kong. TYLT Lab invests across a variety of sectors including biotech and medical technology and will be raising a second fund in 215. TYLT Lab typically invests $5-$1 million and prefers to invest in seed or Series A rounds. The firm makes up to 12 allocations per year and is interested in opportunities globally, companies developing products that can impact healthcare delivery in emerging markets such as China or India are of particular interest.
Gerard Casale
Managing Director 

Vital Venture Capital United States

Vital Venture Capital, founded in 2007, is a venture capital firm with offices in: Simsbury, CT; Bethesda, MD; Philadelphia, PA; Naples, FL; and Lincolnshire, IL. The firm focuses on B2B, SaaS software, medical devices, and diagnostics. The firm seeks opportunities that provide some degree of investment loss protection through strong intellectual property. The firm’s target investment size is $1-3M for each portfolio company spread over 1-3 rounds. The firm invests in companies that are based in the US. The firm is actively seeking new investment opportunities.

Craig Asher
Principal 

Volcano Capital United States

Volcano Capital is a family office/venture capital firm based in New York. The firm manages an evergreen fund that operates free from the constraints of traditional venture capital funds. The firm seeks to make seed, venture, and growth equity investments in early to mid-stage medical device companies, but will also consider secured debt to help revenue generating companies with short term cash flow issues. The firm will also consider pre-seed investments. The firm can allocate anywhere from $1M to $10M per company, but generally allocates around $8M. The firm typically does 3 rounds of financing with an initial investment of around $3M. The firm is geographically agnostic, but highly prefers to invest in companies that are based in the US. The firm seeks to make about 3-4 allocations in the next 6-9 months.

Volcano Capital is currently looking for medical device companies with a strong emphasis on products with a 510(k) regulatory pathway. In terms of subsectors, the firm is looking for products specifically in the areas of interventional radiology and cardiology, spine/orthopedics and minimally invasive surgery. The firm is generally opportunistic in terms of indication.

Brian Grulke
Associate 

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 

Xalud Therapeutics, Inc. United States

Xalud Therapeutics is developing novel, non-opioid therapies for the treatment of neuropathic pain and osteoarthritis. Our lead product, XT-101, has shown exceptional efficacy in the leading rodent models of pain and in canine patients with neuropathic pain and osteoarthritis. XT-101 has an excellent safety profile -- it does not cause sedation, dizziness, numbness, addiction or tolerance.  7 and 28 day GLP toxicology studies have been completed with excellent results.  Xalud intends to file an IND for a Phase I/IIa trial in mid-2015 and, pending funding, initiate clinical trials thereafter.

Xalud's approach to treating pain is fundamentally different than conventional approaches. XT-101 causes the body to produce the natural anti-inflammatory IL-10.  In neuropathic pain, the use of this broad spectrum anti-inflammatory reduces inflammation around the spinal cord and reduces aberant pain signaling.  In gold-standard rodent models, a single injection of XT-101 completely eliminates neuropathic pain for 12 weeks.  We have also tested XT-101 in canine patients with severe osteoarthritis that has been resistant to standard treatments.  In these patients, XT-101 has provided long lasting pain relief resulting in dramatically increased mobility and activity levels and increased joint flexibility.

To date, Xalud's efforts have been supported by over $6 million of grant funding from the NIH, the DOD, and disease foundations.  We seek to raise $6 to $10 Million to fund our initial clinical trial or trials.  These will be placebo controlled Phase I/IIa trials in actual patients.  Because XT-101 has an extended duration, we expect that these trials will provide the safety, efficacy and biomarker data necessary to support a robust Phase II program.

Year Founded
2009
Biotech Phase of Development
Technology Overview
XT-101 is a proprietary plasmid DNA encoding for the natural, broad spectrum anti-inflammatory IL-10
Alliance & Collaborations
Xalud has received extensive support from the NIH and the DOD
Supporting Metrics or Evidence
In leading models of pain, a single administration completely reverses neuropathic pain for 12 weeks. Similar results have been observed in canine patients with osteoarthritis and neuropathic pain.
Current Financing Needs
$6MM to $10MM
Current Timeline
An IND for a Phase I/IIa trial will be filed in mid-2015.
Current Investors
Xalud is entirely grant funded and has raised over $6 MM in non-dilutive financing.
IP Status
Broad patent coverage and freedom to operate have been established
Recent Milestones
In late 2014, 7 and 28 day GLP toxicology studies were completed with excellent results.
Management Team Highlights
The Management team has substantial experience leading early stage biotech companies. Dr. Steve Collins, Xalud's Executive Chairman, has extensive experience managing biopharmaceutical companies and leading pain and CNS drug development efforts. He served as Senior Director for Global CNS and Pain at Johnson and Johnson and Chief Scientific Officer and Vice President of Medical Affairs at Ovation Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Lundbeck for approximately $963 MM). Most recently he served as Chief Executive Officer of NeuroTherapeutics Pharma, Inc., a venture-backed biotechnology company developing treatments for pain and epilepsy.
Peter Heinecke
Chief Business Officer