More well thought out work can be found at — https://axial.substack.com/
Axial partners with great founders and inventors. We invest in early-stage life sciences companies often when they are no more than an idea. We are fanatical about helping the rare inventor who is compelled to build their own enduring business. If you or someone you know has a great idea or company in life sciences, Axial would be excited to get to know you and possibly invest in your vision and company . We are excited to be in business with you - email us at info@axialsprawl.com
Life Sciences Financings and Commentary #16 - July 11, 2020 - July 17, 2020
Financings
Number of deals: 18 & Total capital invested: $540.5M
- Activ Surgical raised $15 million led by ARTIS Ventures to commercialize their autonomous surgical product. Hard market.
- BioAtla raised $72.5M co-led by Soleus Capital and HBM Healthcare Investments to develop their conditionally active biologics in oncology.
- Biose Industrie raised €30M from Cathay Capital to build a CDMO for microbiome therapeutics.
- Caption Health raised $53M led by DCVC to commercialize their ultrasound analysis product. Neat idea.
- Cityblock Health raised $53.5M from Kinnevik, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, and Alphabet to build healthcare services for underserved communities - https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/practices/alphabet-backed-cityblock-health-lands-54m-round-to-expand-care-for-marginalized
- Imvax raised $112M led by HP WILD Holding AG to develop immunotherapies targeting neoantigens.
- Gyant raised $13.6M led by Wing Venture Capital to build a digital health product to improve patient engagement for things like care triaging and post-care services.
- Joshin raised $1.6M led by Anthemis to build a marketplace for disability caregivers.
- Medly Pharmacy raised $100M co-led by Volition Capital and Greycroft to build a full-stack digital pharmacy.
- Mori raised $12M led by Acre Venture Partners to developed a diluted silk solution as a special crop preservative and hopefully use it for meat storage - https://agfundernews.com/sericulture-startup-mori-raises-12m-series-a-to-preserve-food-with-silk.html
- Movano raised $10M led by Tri-Valley Ventures to develop a wearable glucose monitor for patients with chronic diseases.
- NowRx raised $20M through SeedInvest to scale their prescription drug delivery product.
- Noteworth raised $5M led by Laconia Capital to an all-encompassing healthcare product to deal with everything from care coordination to delivery.
- Paige raised $15M from Goldman Sachs Merchant Banking Division to commercialize their pathology product. PathAI is the giant here.
- Pattern Bioscience raised $9M led by Illumina Ventures to build a bacterial identification and susceptibility testing product.
- PMI BioPharma Solutions raised a round from Oak HC/FT to provide drug discovery, development, and manufacturing services.
- Qualio raised $11M led by Storm Ventures to build a software product for quality management in life sciences from drugs to devices.
- Uwill raised $3.3M led by the D in Run-DMC to develop a mental health product for college students.
Exits
Number of exits: 4 & Total exit value: Over $14B
- Berkeley Lights raised $178.2M in an IPO to scale their single-cell tools platform - https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1689657/000119312520181007/d911336ds1.htm
- MultiPlan will merge with a SPAC to go public at a valuation around $11B to grow their healthcare services business - https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/multiplan-and-churchill-capital-corp-iii-reach-agreement-to-combine-301091955.html
- Oak Street Health filed for a $100M IPO to further build their primary care business for Medicare patients in the Midwest - https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1564406/000119312520191163/d918845ds1.htm
- Pandion Therapeutics raised $135M in an IPO to develop their pipeline engineered T-cells for autoimmune diseases - https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1807901/000119312520181101/d926475ds1.htm
Deals
Number of deals: 1 & Total deal value: $775M
- Blueprint Medicines announced a $775M collaboration ($100M in equity and the rest in cash) with Roche and Genentech, to develop and commercialize pralsetinib, for the treatment of people with cancer driven by oncogenic RET alterations, including non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), medullary thyroid cancer (MTC), other thyroid cancers and other solid tumors - https://www.statnews.com/2020/07/14/blueprint-medicines-roche-pralsetinib/
I used to play football a long time ago - I had some decent success mainly because of my teammates with some of them playing in the NFL. Every practice, every game was an existential fight. I’m not that athletic so every year some 6’4 monster would show up trying to take my spot. Similarly, all of these companies are fighting for their right to exist whether they raised $1M or $100M. Building a great business requires passion and focus. A really powerful and useful framework to lead groups of people and win was developed by Bill Walsh -