BioVentures Investors (BVI) invests in new commercial technology in the healthcare sector with a focus on medical devices, diagnostics and similar new commercial technology, collectively known as Medtech. BVI currently has more than $150 million under management in four funds, all focused on the commercial development of innovative healthcare technology.
BVI focus is to capture medtech (therapeutic medical device and diagnostic technologies) investment opportunities that contain radical innovation and enable paradigm shifts. As such, we at Back Bay Group find an excellent synergy between BVI’s focus and strategy and Back Bay Group’s healthcare strategy, selection, due diligence and co-investment opportunities. Through the efficient deployment of capital, BVI de-risks these opportunities, allowing them to achieve commercialization and market dominance.
Why a Medtech Focus: A confluence of advances in technology and ongoing trends in the market is creating a wealth of opportunities in Medtech innovations, particularly innovations that improve the efficiency of delivering healthcare benefits (i.e. products that are effective and lower overall costs).
Medtech is currently in a period of active innovation and expansion. Fueling this wave of innovation is:
- Convergence, the unification of advanced engineering and biomedical technology with clinical research. This union of engineers, biochemists and other bench scientists with clinical researchers and practitioners is producing new, more effective methods of treating and detecting disease in areas such as drug delivery, percutaneous surgery, advanced diagnostic systems, patient monitoring and healthcare services. Historically, Medtech products have been developed through an iterative process between physicians and manufacturers: physicians state a need, manufacturers develop technology to answer the need. Convergence disrupts this incremental cycle with dynamic changes in methodology and practice for the detection and treatment of disease.
- Advances in genomics are driving, more patient-tailored, personalized medicine approaches to treating disease. New tools and diagnostic technology are fundamental to this approach.
Founded in 1998, the team has completed 28 Medtech transactions in the last decade and successfully exited 20 of these deals to date. BVI’s Medtech-focused returns have exceptional return profile.
Deal flow: The firm has forged significant relationships based on trust, integrity and performance with key deal flow sources including innovators in the medical community, key opinion leaders, engineers, company executives, IP/corporate attorneys and the academic community.
Highly relevant industry experience and management expertise: each investment professional has over thirty years in the life sciences. The founders of BioVentures Investors, Peter Feinstein and Marc Goldberg, have worked closely on various healthcare enterprises since 1984. Walter Gilbert, Ph.D., a Nobel Laureate and a Founder of Biogen, has been active in BVI since its inception. Jeff Barnes, who joined BVI in January 2010, has been a co-investor in three BVI portfolio companies while a Partner at Oxford Bioscience Partners.
Location in World Center of Life Science Research
Massachusetts, with approximately 400 Medtech companies and a unique concentration of universities, teaching hospitals and research institutions is one of the top three centers of life science technology in the U.S . Five of the top eight and seven of the top 16 NIH-funded medical research centers in the U.S. are located in Massachusetts. Both Back Bay Group and BVI’s location in the Boston area and their team’s longstanding ties to and participation in the Massachusetts life science cluster provide significant opportunities to access deal flow and talent in the region.
