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Aspect Biosystems Canada

Aspect Biosystems uses proprietary bioprinting and cell culture technologies to create high quality living 3D human tissues.  We aim to improve the pre-clinical drug discovery process by providing pharmaceutical companies and researchers with functional living tissues that better predict the human response to drugs.  Our testing platforms will enable pharmaceutical customers to identify failed drugs earlier in the development pipeline, before expensive clinical trials begin.  Aspect Biosystem’s long-term vision is to create human tissues on demand for multiple applications including cosmetics-testing, personalized medicine, diagnostics and regenerative medicine.

Website:
Aspectbiosystems.com
Year Founded
2013
Main Sector
Medtech Subsector
Indication
Technology Overview
Aspect has proprietary 3D bioprinting and tissue engineering technologies that enable the fabrication of complex, biologically relevant living human tissues.
Alliance & Collaborations
Multiple academic and industry collaborations
Supporting Metrics or Evidence
Multiple functional endpoints confirm biological function of the engineered tissue constructs.
Current Timeline
1st tissue product (airway) is in the process of productisation. Bioprinter development and optimisation of alternative tissue types is underway.
Current Investors
Founders, family and friends, Angels, Seed fund.
IP Status
Bioprinter PCT in place. Full patent application in September 2015
Recent Milestones
2nd place in BC Innovation Council's New Ventures competition (Sept 2014)
Mr Simon Beyer
Co-founder 

Asset Management Ventures

Asset Management Ventures is a private investment firm funded by a single LP and is based in California USA. The firm invests in seed and early-stage health technology companies. The typical investment size for seed investment ranges from $25K to $1M (usually in equity or convertible notes). For early-stage companies the firm typically co-invests with other VC firms in Series A and B financing and the investment size will depend on the company?s financial needs. The firm is geographically agnostic but prefers start-ups to be based on the West Coast. The firm is actively seeking new investment opportunities.
Website:
www.assetman.com
Investor Type
Sector Interest
Biotech Subsector
Indication
Biotech Phase of Development
Capital Structure Preference
Investment Stage Preference
Richard Simoni
Managing Partner 

Astia Angels

Astia is an organization whose mission is to provide women-led startups access to capital resources and executive leadership. Astia was founded in 2013 and is based in San Francisco California with additional offices in New York New York and London United Kingdom. Astia typically provides access to capital to women-led life science companies through two programs: Astia Venture Lunches and Astia Angels and is in the process of developing a third program: Astia Fund. Companies that apply to Astia Venture Lunches will be vetted by Astia?s Expert Sift process. The selected companies are invited to present to a room of accredited investors: VCs and angels. Companies applying to Astia are also considered by Astia Angels and the investments from Astia Angels are typically under $1 million. Astia is stage agnostic though companies applying should be able to show traction and proof of concept. Companies can be global and must have at least one woman in a leadership position of significant influence and holding equity.
Website:
www.drexler.com
Investor Type
Sector Interest
Biotech Subsector
Medtech Subsector
Indication
Biotech Phase of Development
Medtech Phase of Development
Capital Structure Preference
Investment Stage Preference
Karen Drexler
Founder 
Sharon Vosmek
CEO 
Sara Frankel
Member 

Avisa Pharma Inc. United States

Avisa Pharma™ Inc., (AVISA) is a Point Of Care, In-Vivo Platform Technology Company With An Innovative, Integrated System For The Rapid Detection And Monitoring Of Respiratory Diseases. A paradigm shift away from lab based In Vitro testing; an In Vivo, point of care, breath test that measures the whole lung, live organisms, not a single culture sample in a petri dish or PCR;for non sputum producers - the only test that can detect lung bacteria without a sputum culture; A razor/razorblade Model to Drive Rapid Market Penetration and Growth.

Focused initially on respiratory health, the clinical study strategy is to pursue fastest route to regulatory approvals, the detection of Tuberculosis (TB), followed by Healthcare Acquired Pneumonia (HCAP), Ventilator Associated Pneumonia (VAP), Cystic Fibrosis (CF) and COPD. These applications have the potential to help save millions of lives and millions of dollars in healthcare costs each year, and a multi billion $ market opportunity.  

$6 million Series A1 Preferred round underway, $4 million received from current investors exercising preemptive rights. Q1 2015 Avisa will be launching a 40 patient pilot TB study in South Africa.

Website:
http://www.avisapharma.com
Year Founded
2011
Main Sector
Medtech Subsector
Indication
Medtech Phase of Development
Technology Overview
The AVISAR System™ is drug device combination comprised of AV-U13, an inhalable urea solution, the portable AVISAR™ Spec Laser Spectrophotometer and the Aeroneb Solo nebulizer. The AV BreathTest™ allows clinicians to assess the presence or absence of bacteria in the entire lung, non-invasively, within minutes and monitor therapy for better antibiotic stewardship. A paradigm shift away from lab based In Vitro testing. An In Vivo, point of care, breath test that measures the whole lung, live organisms, not a single culture sample in a petri dish or PCR. For non sputum producers - the only test that can detect lung bacteria without a sputum culture.
Alliance & Collaborations
None
Supporting Metrics or Evidence
Pre-clinical, Clinical
Current Financing Needs
Series A1 $6 million, $4 million raised from current investors
Current Timeline
PMA in 2017
Current Investors
Venture fund, private equity investors
IP Status
Issued and Pending Patents
Recent Milestones
Positive Clinical Data in Proof of Concept in Cystic Fibrosis clinical study
Management Team Highlights
CEO 35 years, four successful exits
David Joseph
President - CEO 

Baird Venture Partners

Baird Venture Partners is the venture and expansion capital arm of Robert W. Baird & Co. The Baird Venture Partners team is based in Chicago Illinois and has around $27 million in total assets under management. In 214 Baird closed a fourth venture capital fund at $185 million. The firm is currently seeking opportunities in the life science sector and while Baird has no strict timeline to make investments the group would invest in a new firm within the next 6-9 months if a compelling opportunity was identified. The firm?s equity investments range from $3-1 million but are typically in the $8-1 million range.The firm will only consider investment into US based firms.
Website:
www.rwbaird.com
Investor Type
Sector Interest
Biotech Subsector
Indication
Biotech Phase of Development
Medtech Phase of Development
Capital Structure Preference
Investment Stage Preference
Momei Qu
Senior Associate 

Band of Angels

The Band of Angels is a funding organization that was founded in 1994 and it is based in Silicon Valley California. The organization typically provides capital to companies through three programs: The Band of Angels Acorn Fund and The Band of Angels Venture Fund. The group focuses on seed and Series A stage high-tech companies across several industries including life science space. The Band of Angels generally makes investments ranging from $3K to $75k but it often leads a syndication of $2-3million. Acorn Fund which is The Band?s third side fund and was founded in 29 generally makes investments ranging from $1k to $75k. The Band of Angels Venture Fund is a $5 million venture fund which raised in 1999 by The Band of Angels. Initial investment sizes of the fund are typically $3 and can go up to $2.5 million. The Band generally makes around 1 -2 investments per year. The group focuses on companies based in Silicon Valley but it will consider selective opportunities in Los Angles and San Diego areas. The group's portfolio includes biotechnology and medical device companies working with oncology and muscle recovery.
Website:
www.tosk.com
Investor Type
Sector Interest
Biotech Subsector
Indication
Biotech Phase of Development
Medtech Phase of Development
Capital Structure Preference
Investment Stage Preference
Brian Frenzel
Member 
Michael Bates
Member, Board of Directors 

Baxter Ventures

Baxter Ventures is the strategic venture arm of Baxter International Inc. that was formed in 2011 and is based in Deerfield, Illinois. The firm is currently making equity investments out of a $200 Million fund with allocations generally falling in the $3-$5 million range. The firm is looking in invest in companies who have previously or are currently in the process of securing investment from other institutional investors. The firm is willing to look globally for investment opportunities and plans to make approximately 2 new investments over the next 6-9 months.

Investor Type
Sector Interest
Biotech Subsector
Medtech Subsector
Indication
Biotech Phase of Development
Medtech Phase of Development
Capital Structure Preference
Investment Stage Preference
Priyanka Rohatgi
Director 

Becton Dickinson (BD)

BD (Becton Dickinson and Company) based in Franklin Lakes NJ is a leading medical technology company that partners with customers and stakeholders to address many of the world?s most pressing and evolving health needs. Their innovative solutions are focused on improving drug delivery enhancing the diagnosis of infectious diseases and cancers supporting the management of diabetes and advancing cellular research. The firm has nearly 3 associates in 5 countries who strive to fulfill our purpose of ?Helping all people live healthy lives? by advancing the quality accessibility safety and affordability of healthcare around the world. For more information please visit www.bd.com. BD partners with companies from their formation through to commercialization including expansion of operations and channel access. BD considers a variety of engagement models including research collaborations licenses investments and acquisition when partnering with companies aligned with BD?s core businesses and new areas of strategic interest seeking opportunities from around the globe.
Website:
www.bd.com
Investor Type
Sector Interest
Biotech Subsector
Indication
Biotech Phase of Development
Medtech Phase of Development
Capital Structure Preference
Investment Stage Preference
Albert Lauritano
Director Strategic Technology Partnerships 

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. 

Website:
http://www.biosciencemanagers.com/
Investor Type
Sector Interest
Biotech Subsector
Medtech Subsector
Indication
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 

Biosortia Pharmaceuticals United States

Biosortia has opened the door to a new frontier of fascinating compounds that have the potential to materially impact the direction of various chronic diseases.  We are dedicated to discovering new chemical entities for the management of critical chronic disease states such as cancer, neuroscience, infectious disease, and inflammatory disorders to ultimately improve the lives of others.

Value Proposition

Pharma is looking for 3 key things:

1. Novel, never seen before, chemistry from new environments to fight chronic disease

2. Higher levels of potency (nano to Pico molar) to reduce the impact of side-effects

3. New mechanisms of action to fight chronic disease in new and more effective manner

It is well known that micro-organism consortia (not macro) are one of the most biologically active and chemically diverse plant/fungi that are rich in what we call “Defense Mechanism Chemistry”.  Defense Mechanism Chemistry is key in developing drugs for cancer, infectious disease and inflammation.  The problem is no one has been able to get access to this unique chemistry at scale and have the natural products expertise to identify the unique compounds…until now.  

We will provide Pharma with new compounds, rich in “Defense Mechanism Chemistry” on a routine basis that could shorten the discovery cycle by 2-3 years and reduce the overall cost.  

Best Regards,

Kurt Dieck

President and CEO

kdieck@biosortia.com

(614) 296-7076

Website:
www.biosortia.com
Year Founded
2008
Main Sector
Biotech Subsector
Indication
Biotech Phase of Development
Technology Overview
Mobile, scalable, technology that maintains the integrity of the cell. Biosortia has proprietary methods & technologies that allow us to harvest unique single cellular micro-organism consortia never before studied and in unprecedented quantities targeting 500-1,000kg dry weight solids (DWS). Our technologies and capabilities open up this rich environment of bioactive and chemically diverse compounds for research in the pharmaceutical space for the first time ever. Biosortia’s relationship with NOAA and our Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with them provides Biosortia with identification and access to distinctly qualified harvest locations.
Alliance & Collaborations
(Eli Lilly, AstraZeneca, Eisai and Cubist Pharmaceuticals) with more in the pipeline.
Supporting Metrics or Evidence
Promising Early Results with big pharma (Eli Lilly, AstraZeneca, Eisai and Cubist Pharmaceuticals) with more in the pipeline. • Eli Lilly’s OIDD To date, nearly 100% of Compounds of Interest submitted into Eli Lilly’s Open Innovation Drug Discovery (OIDD) program have been accepted for evaluation…compared to an average 50-60% rejection rate on all submissions. This unprecedented achievement has recently earned Biosortia the inaugural “Collaborator of the Year” award from Lilly. In addition, due to the success in the OIDD Program, Lilly asked to join our Pharma Direct Model and test our fraction library. Initial results across simple 2 assays have produced 10 leads that they desire to follow-up in December 2014. • Big Pharma Interest As of September 30, 2014 we have 4 Big Pharma companies in our Pharma Direct Model (Eli Lilly, AstraZeneca, Cubist and Eisai) with 3 others in the pipeline in various stages of discussions.
Current Financing Needs
Capital- Biosortia has raised 2 rounds of series A Preferred Shares; November 2012 of $1.1M ($29M pre-money valuation) and September 2013 of $3.9M ($35M pre money valuation). In addition, it secured $1 million loan (2% interest) from the State of Ohio, therefore meeting our original desired capital raise of $4-5 million. The current raise is for $3-$6 million dollar to provide the runway to our first licensing agreement in Q4 2015 and drive the scaling of science capability to support the volume from our fraction libraries to be launched in Q1 of 2015.
Current Timeline
Hit rates well in excess of expectations Through our Pharma Direct Partners and 8 academic collaborators, we have over 50% of our fractions active against various therapy areas. This demonstrates both the richness of our compounds and the diversity across multiple therapy areas. With one of our Big Pharma partners alone, we have 48 active fractions/wells, with 20 showing inhibition of cancer growth from 90-99.8%. • Clear pathway to first license event in 2015 We can share with you a clear pathway to a license event in 2015. AZ, Lilly and Eisai are all on schedule to complete their R&D efforts by Q3 of 2015 that will put them in position to determine which compounds of interest they would like to license.
Recent Milestones
To date, nearly 100% of Compounds of Interest submitted into Eli Lilly’s Open Innovation Drug Discovery (OIDD) program have been accepted for evaluation…compared to an average 50-60% rejection rate on all submissions. This unprecedented achievement has recently earned Biosortia the inaugural “Collaborator of the Year” award from Lilly.
Management Team Highlights
Experienced Leadership Team & Advisors Biosortia’s leadership team has over 135 years of healthcare and life science experience with expertise in both pharmaceutical research and the micro-organism aquatic environments with the capability to provide new chemistry in a research ready format and co-develop with Pharma to pre-clinical. -Kurt D. Dieck, President and CEO - Mr. Dieck has spent 30 years in healthcare, including 18 years at Arthur Andersen where he was a global equity partner. In 2002, Kurt joined Cardinal Health, a Fortune 20 public company as a senior executive; where over his tenure he had responsibilities for Strategy, Business Development and ultimately SVP of Business Execution for the $100B pharmaceutical distribution segment. There he worked with a broad spectrum of partners, including brand pharmaceutical manufacturers, throughout the supply chain. Kurt also sits on two other healthcare related boards that are owned by Private Equity firms. -Guy T. Carter, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer – Dr. Carter has over 30 years of experience working in Pharmaceutical R&D, primarily in the discovery and development of microbial products. In the course of his career in the pharmaceutical industry he worked as a natural products discovery scientist and advanced through levels of scientific management to the overall leadership of the Natural Products Discovery function at Wyeth Research (later acquired by Pfizer), as well as directing other elements of the Chemical Technologies Department. Guy received a doctorate in Biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and then pursued marine natural products research on an NIH-sponsored post-doctoral fellowship with Kenneth Rinehart at the University of Illinois. -Haiyin He, Ph.D., VP of Research – Dr. He has more than 20 years of experience in pharmaceutical R&D, specializing in discovery of drug leads from natural products and their semi-synthetic analogs in oncology, infectious disease, and other therapeutic areas. Haiyin worked as a principle scientist III and group leader at Wyeth Research and after the merger between Pfizer and Wyeth, he continued on to work at Pfizer World Wide Medicinal Chemistry as an associate research fellow in the area of antibody-drug conjugates for cancer chemotherapy. Haiyin received a doctorate in marine natural products at Scripps Institution of Oceanography with John Faulkner, and then acquired a postdoctoral experience at Chemistry Department, Cornell University with Jon Clardy.
Dr Guy Carter
Dr Guy Carter
LinkedIn logo CSO 
Mr Kurt Dieck
Mr Kurt Dieck
LinkedIn logo President and CEO