A document which contains plans to raise $100 million in healthcare funds, was recently submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission by a venture capital firm in Madison, Wisconsin, – Venture Investors LLC – which also has a strong business presence in Michigan. The name of this fund is Venture Investors Health 6 LP.
Venture Investors was founded in 1997, aimed at healthcare off-shoots from Midwest universities. Since then, it has been to put $200 million in assets under its wing, including 41 portfolio companies.
These portfolio companies are based in Ann Arbor and some of them have links will the University of Michigan. Among them are;
- SkySpecs Inc., they develop drone-controlling software;
- Tissue Regeneration Systems Inc., they are focused on skeletal reconstruction and bone-regeneration;
- Delphinus Medical Technologies Inc., which employs ultrasound technology in breast cancer detection;
- NeuMoDx Molecular Inc., a molecular-diagnostics company;
- HistoSonics Inc., which uses sound waves in the treatment of tumors
- BlueWillow Biologics, focused on intranasal vaccines development.
Making his comment on this new fund, Chris Rizik, the CEO and fund manager of Ann Arbor-based Renaissance Venture Capital Fund, an affiliate of the Business Leaders for Michigan which made a public statement earlier last month that it has been able to raise an $81 million worth of funds, said that:
“Jim Adox is one of the most experienced venture capitalists in Michigan, and it is a big deal not only that he and Venture Investors are raising a new fund, but that he is the managing partner of the fund, working out of Ann Arbor. For Michigan to continue to ascend as a state for high-growth companies, we’ll need to have more $100 million funds that can invest throughout a company’s lifecycle, and Venture Investors has shown that they’re good at that.”
Chris further stated that “one of the first investments I was ever a part of, 20 years ago, was Tomotherapy, and our co-investor was Venture Investors. Tomotherapy went on to become a public company, and we got to know the entire team at Venture Investors. They’re a great group and extremely important for the Midwest. And, since Jim joined them several years ago, they’ve shown a strong commitment to Michigan.”
Jim Adox who was a former chairman of the Ann Arbor-based Michigan Venture Capital Association and managing director of the Ann Arbor office, refused to make any comment, as it’s against the SEC rules to promote a fund publicly while raising money.
Venture Investors has started holding meetings with potential investors, on partaking in the new fund.
Source: Venture Investors raising $100 million fund | Crain’s Detroit Business
