$100 Million Fund Aimed At Seed-Stage Biotech Firms

Filed in archive Corporate and Industrial News on May 2, 2006

Although biotech and life science companies in general are attracting interest from angel investors, most of them prefer investing in late-stage rather than in start-up companies. The long exit horizon adds to the risk investors are simply not willing to take. Luckily, not all of them think that way.

Steven Wardell, of Apeiron Partners LLC, is looking for early-stage companies in which to invest Z-Cube's $100 million fund.

The new fund plans to make 60 seed-stage investments in the life-sciences academic research projects and 20 follow-up venture capital investments.

And so is Marc Goldberg, of BioVentures Investors, which invests funds of $50 million to $100 million in companies developing drug and medical devices.

"We look for new companies that can eventually provide the next generation of products for the big guys in pharma and devices," said Goldberg, who started the company in 1999. "We'll help develop the data package, perfect the IP and get it ready for a big buyer so we might leave with three to five times our investment. Our goal was never to grow and do the biggest deals we could."

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