Looking for Some of This?

[Update | Add Domain Associates, Domain Partners, VIII $500M to the early-stage drug and device sectors; bringing recently closed funds up to $1,925M]

Recently Boston, MA-based Excel Venture Management announced the close of the new $125M Excel Medical Fund. The portfolio is a planned balance across healthcare IT and services, diagnostics, and medical devices, plus life science platforms that address adjacent markets which may include energy, chemicals, defense and agriculture. It is made unambiguously clear that single molecule drug companies need not apply – for such an approach is not of interest to their principals. Initial investments are in the $1M to $5M range and it appears at least five investments have been made to date, these include 1. Aileron Therapeutics (who is developing Stapled Peptides, an entirely new therapeutic modality that can target all human diseases) 2. BioTrove (who provides micro- and nano-scale technologies to the research and diagnostics markets) 3. Dormir (an integrated provider of sleep diagnostic services, therapy and equipment) 4. MedVentive (provider of healthcare IT business intelligence solutions) and 5. Synthetic Genomics (who is designing metabolic pathways for the production of biochemicals and next generation biofuels from a variety of feedstocks).

Additional life science funds that have closed within the last twelve months include Essex Woodlands Ventures $900M Fund VIII which invests across the spectrum of drug, device and service companies in North America, Europe and Asia, and Morgenthaler Ventures checked in with their $400M Fund IX, who in their press release indicated a continued focus on early-stage investing.

So sum it all up and approximately $1,425M in new early-stage life science capital is needing to be put to work and eventually returned at some hopeful market exceeding multiple to the fund's limited and managing partners. What are you doing to make your entity “investable”?