In our new article series, we introduce the most exciting venture capital firms that are open for LP investments to our family office network. The article belongs to our exclusive single family office guidebook, where we give guidance on the most relevant topics for newly established and already existing family investment vehicles.
In this article, we talked to Seroba Life Sciences, a Dublin-based venture capital fund focused on biotech and medtech ventures. We decided to get in touch with Seroba due to their successful track record and their rather special focus on life science opportunities.
Familyofficehub.io: Briefly describe your focus: in which kind of startups are you investing, where is your geographical focus, what’s your average ticket size?
Seroba: Seroba is an early-stage investor, more European focused though with some exposure to North America. We invest in both biotech and medtech opportunities, starting with a first up to 5MEur ticket, and overall allocating 10MEur or more to each investee. Investment stage would be from pre-clinical and beyond for biotech, and closer to first-in-man and beyond for medtech.
Familyofficehub.io: What are exciting companies in your portfolio – and why?
Seroba: Beyond past successful exits (Apica, Covagen, Precision Biotics, Prexton, Xention, …), our current portfolio comprises exciting companies such as:
- Atlantic Therapeutics (urinary incontinence, commercial stage)
- Novel neuro muscular electrical stimulation device (Innovo ®) to treat a range of incontinence in women and men.
- 47 million sufferers of urinary incontinence in USA, UK, Germany and France, representing a $4.5bn realisable market opportunity.
- Opportunity to expand market footprint to treat faecal incontinence and sexual health.
- Endotronix (heart failure monitoring, clinical stage)
- The Cordella Heart Failure system combines a novel implantable pulmonary artery pressure (PAP) monitor with cloud-based care platform (myCordella) to monitor heart failure (HF) from the home, significantly reducing hospitalisation. Ongoing FDA and CE Mark trials. Close to 6 million Americans live with Heart Failure, 50% will die within 5 years of diagnosis. Over $31Bn was spent on Heart Failure in USA in 2013, set to rise to $70Bn by 2030.
- Fusion (targeted radiopharmaceuticals, clinical stage)
- Nasdaq: FUSN, IPOed in 06-2020; targeted oncology play that combines the potent killing effects of a radioactive with targets over-expressed in cancer tissue. Lead product in clinical testing with a robust pipeline/platform. Signed strategic corporate partnership deal with AstraZeneca.
- Quanta (haemodialysis, commercial stage)
- Portable haemodialysis system uniquely applicable across all dialysis segments hospital institution clinic selfcare home
- Advancing American Kidney Health Initiative (AAKHI) launched in July, 2019, opening up the US market
- 10 Bn$ addressable market
- PQB (peripheral vascular disease, clinical stage)
- Company is developing 2 devices to treat long lesions (up to 46cm) in PVD
- PVD market is worth $7bn 2020). The Detour device converts an open surgical procedure into an endovascular, minimally invasive procedure and thus represents a new $1.3bn market (USA & EU) to treat long lesions or occlusions (>20cm)
- Shorla (oncology specialty pharma, clinical stage)
- Specialised on niche, short time-to-market product development opportunities, to build a portfolio of marketed drugs within a few years
- Storm (RNA epigenetics, pre-clinical stage)
- Pioneer and most advanced in the field, robust platform generating broad pipeline
- Oncology focused to start with, but other therapeutic areas are being explored
Familyofficehub.io: Why should a family office invest in Seroba as LP?
Seroba: Drug and medical device industries are probably amongst the most complex and regulated. Only a specialised, experienced VC fund is able to identify the most promising opportunities and help them grow towards an exit, thanks to being immersed in the healthcare ecosystem. Investing into both biotech and medtech allows Seroba to have a holistic view as to what is best to address unmet medical needs. Seroba exploits the great science available in Western Europe, while building bridges with North America for their growth whenever relevant.
Familyofficehub.io: Thanks for your time!
Headquarters: Dublin, Ireland
Website: https://www.seroba-lifesciences.com
