Power In The Numbers
Founded in 2007, jVen Capital has invested in more than a dozen life sciences investment transactions – primarily in the areas of personalized medicine, digital health, and medical devices. jVen invests in science that can be enhanced by hands-on management with rigorous execution of a comprehensive business plan.
Active Investments
Veracyte (Nasdaq: VCYT) is a global diagnostics company that improves patient care by providing answers to clinical questions, informing diagnosis and treatment decisions throughout the patient journey in cancer and other diseases. The company’s growing menu of diagnostic tests leverages advances in genomic science and technology, enabling patients to avoid risky, costly diagnostic procedures and quicken time to appropriate treatment. The company’s tests in lung cancer, prostate cancer, breast cancer, thyroid cancer, bladder cancer, colon cancer, and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis are available to patients and its renal cancer and lymphoma subtyping tests are in development, the latter as a companion diagnostic. With Veracyte’s exclusive global license to a best-in-class diagnostics instrument platform, the company is positioned to deliver its genomic tests to patients worldwide. Veracyte is based in South San Francisco, California. For more information, please visit www.veracyte.com.
Sunwink is an emerging beverage company with products made by women for everyone to expand access to herbal remedies in the consumer beverage space. Prior to Sunwink it was either an overwhelming natural aisle in grocery stores or $100 luxury tinctures and mixes. Founder, Eliza, began crafting and bringing the tonics to market when she met co-founder and CMO, Jordan. When they met, Jordan had just taken the Impossible Burger to market and started the plant-based movement. Eliza and Jordan started to imagine what a world of truly good for you and the planet products looked like. Sunwink are on a mission to give people easy ways to care for themselves each day. In the form of all sorts of tasty herb-powered drinks!
GeneWerk is a leading partner for the worldwide biopharmaceutical industry providing the most advanced, integrated set of analytical services capabilities in biologic development, especially in gene and cell therapy-related testing, from early development through drug approval to commercialization. In July 2021GeneWerk completed a merger with Protagen Protein Services, PPS. With the addition of GeneWerk’s unique capabilities in vector safety, characterization, and functionality analysis, PPS will complement its current analytical testing offering in protein characterization identity, purity, potency and capsid loading to become a full-service partner in gene therapy testing for the biopharmaceutical industry. The merger creates a leading partner for the worldwide biopharmaceutical industry to benefit from the most advanced, integrated set of analytical services capabilities in biologic development, especially in gene and cell therapy-related testing, from early development through drug approval to commercialization. The combined organization will have more than 175 employees across four sites in Europe and North America.
Kyverna Therapeutics, located in the San Francisco East Bay, is a cell therapy company engineering a new class of therapies for serious autoimmune diseases. The Kyverna therapeutic platform combines advanced T cell engineering and synthetic biology technologies to suppress and eliminate the autoreactive immune cells at the root cause of inflammatory diseases. Kyverna’s investors include Westlake Village BioPartners, Vida Ventures, and Gilead Sciences. For more information, please visit https://kyvernatx.com.
Past Successful Investments
Fluidigm (Nasdaq:FLDM) is an industry-leading biotechnology tools provider with a vision to improve life through comprehensive health insight. We focus on the most pressing needs in translational and clinical research, including cancer, immunology, and immunotherapy. Using proprietary CyTOF® and microfluidics technologies, we develop, manufacture, and market multi-omic solutions to drive meaningful insights in health and disease, identify biomarkers to inform decisions, and accelerate the development of more effective therapies. Our customers are leading academic, government, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and plant and animal research laboratories worldwide. Together with them, we strive to increase the quality of life for all. For more information, visit fluidigm.com.
Fluidigm, the Fluidigm logo, Biomark, and CyTOF are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Fluidigm Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Fluidigm products are provided for Research Use Only. Not for use in diagnostic procedures.
Assurex Health is a commercial-stage, informatics-based precision medicine company providing treatment decision support to clinicians for behavioral health conditions. Assurex Health’s proprietary GeneSight technology is based on combinatorial pharmacogenomics (CPGx™) – the application of multiple genetic factors that influence an individual’s response to medications – as well as evidence-based medicine and clinical pharmacology. Assurex Health has licensed patented technology from Mayo Clinic and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, both of whom continue to be research collaborators. The company was acquired by Myriad Genetics in August 2016 for $225 million and subsequent earn out payments.
CAS Medical Systems (NASDAQ: CASM) is a leading developer and manufacturer of medical devices for non-invasive patient monitoring. The Company’s FORE-SIGHT Absolute Cerebral Oximeter is the only cerebral oximeter available with FDA clearance for non-invasive, continuous measurement of absolute cerebral tissue oxygen saturation. This information helps avert brain damage or death during surgery and in critical care situations by allowing clinicians to identify patients with dangerously low levels of cerebral oxygen and intervene to reverse the condition.
The Company’s product lines include the high-acuity and vital signs monitoring products, proprietary non-invasive blood pressure measurement technology, and supplies and service including blood pressure cuffs and products for neonatal intensive care. CASMED products are designed to meet the needs of a full spectrum of patient populations worldwide, ranging from adults to pediatrics and neonates. The company was acquired by Edwards Life Sciences for $98 million in February 2019.
superDimension is a privately-held medical device company that develops and markets minimally-invasive pulmonology devices that enable the diagnosis and potentially the treatment of distal lung disease. The company’s i·LogicTM System, includes both capital equipment and disposables, addressing a total available market of more than 8 million patients. Driven by a mission, “To be the world leader in the diagnosis and treatment of distal lung disease,” superDimension is focused on extending the capabilities of traditional bronchoscopy tools to help diagnose previously inaccessible lung lesions at an earlier stage when they may be easier to treat.
In March 2012 Covidien announced a definitive agreement to acquire superDimension, Ltd. for approximately $300 million, with future earn out payments possible. The transaction was completed in the second calendar quarter of 2012.
In 1990 Evan Jones and Chuck Fleischman established Armonk Partners to acquire controlling interest in Digene Corp. Over the next 17 years the Digene team built the company into one of the leaders in the molecular diagnostics industry. The company completed a successful IPO in 1996 and was sold to Qiagen in 2007 for approximately $1.6 billion. Digene developed the first FDA approved screening tests for HPV, the cause of cervical cancer. In 2007 the company had annual revenue of approximately $200 million with a 35% annual growth rate. With over $50 million in annual cash flow, nearly $100 million in cash and a strong operating business Digene pioneered the field of women’s health diagnostic testing.
In 2008 jVen Capital invested in Signature Genomic Laboratories along with Ampersand Ventures. Mr. Jones became Executive Chairman working closely with company founders Lisa Shaffer, Ph.D., and Bassem Bajjani, M.D. to help build a leading business in Microarray based genetic testing for rare diseases. In 2010 Signature Genomic was acquired by PerkinElmer for approximately $90 million.
jVen Capital made an investment in the pre-IPO Series B round and Mr. Jones served on the Board of Directors from January 2013 until the company was sold in June 2018. The remaining minority interest in Foundation Medicine was acquired by Roche Holdings for $2.3 billion in June 2018. Foundation Medicine (NASDAQ: FMI) is a molecular information company dedicated to a transformation in cancer care in which treatment is informed by a deep understanding of the genomic changes that contribute to each patient’s unique cancer. The company’s clinical assays, FoundationOne™ for solid tumors and FoundationOne™ Heme for hematologic malignancies, sarcomas and pediatric cancers, each provide a fully informative genomic profile to identify the molecular alterations in a patient’s tumor and match them with relevant targeted therapies and clinical trials. Foundation Medicine’s molecular information platform aims to improve day-to-day care for patients by serving the needs of clinicians, academic researchers and drug developers to help advance the science of molecular medicine in cancer.
OpGen, Inc. (Nasdaq: OPGN) is a precision medicine company harnessing the power of molecular diagnostics and bioinformatics to help combat infectious disease. Along with our subsidiaries, Curetis GmbH and Ares Genetics GmbH, we are developing and commercializing molecular microbiology solutions helping to guide clinicians with more rapid and actionable information about life threatening infections to improve patient outcomes and decrease the spread of infections caused by multidrug-resistant microorganisms, or MDROs. OpGen’s product portfolio includes Unyvero, Acuitas AMR Gene Panel and Acuitas® Lighthouse, and the ARES Technology Platform including ARESdb, using NGS technology and AI-powered bioinformatics solutions for antibiotic response prediction.For more information, please visit www.opgen.com.