Angel Group To Fund New England Life Sciences Firms
Money sure is tight, but a new angel group may provide some hope for those in the medical device sector.
If you’re a medical device startup, or if you’re looking to commercialize your search, Mass Medical Angels is looking for early stage companies that need $250,000 to $3 million. So far the organization has a primitive web site (www.massmedangels.com) with basic information. There’s not much there yet, but it does allow for the submission of business plans.
The fund is looking to get their investment back 10 times over within five years, according to the web site. The group also claims to be “dedicated to bringing more medical innovations to market.”
The bold faced names behind the angel group include Richard Anders, a Boston-area entrepreneur, and Carl M. Berke, a Boston-area scientist who has helped bring new technologies to market.
One would think there might be a lot of interested start-ups in our area since Worcester ranks seventh in the country for its concentration of medical device and equipment employment, beating out the Boston-Cambridge-Quincy area, which ranks ninth, according to a Business Facilities magazine ranking last August. According to that ranking, Massachusetts ranked third in the U.S. as an employer in medical devices and equipment, with 7 percent of the country’s medical device employees.
Pitch Time
If it’s June, then it must be WPI’s Elevator Pitch Contest. It is for technology entrepreneurs, but that doesn’t rule out medical technology entrepreneurs. April 30 is the deadline to register, which can be done through the organization’s web site at www.wpiventureforum.org. If you’re selected, you get to give a five-minute verbal elevator pitch to the judges, who generally ask questions about your business after your presentation.
If you are interested in participating, keep in mind that the judges are usually entrepreneurs or venture capitalists.
Worcester RNAi Expert Speaks
Philip Zamore, UMass Medical School’s Gretchen Stone Cook Professor of Biomedical Science, will be a keynote speaker at an international event, RNAi World Congress, which is being held in Boston this year on May 14 and 15.
His topic is “What Fruit Flies Teach Us About RNA Silencing,” and he’ll discuss how understanding the way silencing RNA has let scientists study gene function as well as discover drug targets and new approaches for disease therapies.
Time, Money, Innovation
A heads up to those with $225 (or $180 if you’re a member of a number of life sciences organizations) and some time on Wednesday June 3: you can be part of Massachusetts Life Sciences Innovation Day 2009.
It is essentially a chance to meet life science entrepreneurs, and more importantly for some, angel investors and venture capitalists, possibly looking for the “next great thing.” State and federal officials will also be on hand.
This is the second such day and this year’s theme is the 150th Anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin’s “On the Origin of the Species” put on by the Massachusetts Technology Transfer Center.
Among the topics along that theme are “The Natural Selection of Life Science Start-Ups” and the “Evolution of Life Science Technologies” and “Proof of Concept: The Missing Link.”
It will be held from the Sheraton Boston Hotel from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
For more information on the event go to www.mattcenter.org.
Got news for our Biotech Buzz column? Contact WBJ Staff Writer Eileen Kennedy at ekennedy@wbjournal.com.
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