May 2019
In Quest for Cures, Medical Nonprofits Seek to Wield Their Own Venture Funding Power
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The Wall Street Journal included BrightEdge in a look at the emergence of philanthropic venture funds to provide capital to medical startups. Bob Crutchfield, managing director of the BrightEdge fund, says such nonprofit funding vehicles nicely complement the role of the for-profit capital markets in accelerating the time it takes for promising healthcare innovations to get from patient trials to commercialization.
Nonprofit groups that advocate for disease research are diving more deeply into venture capital in an effort to wield greater influence inside the startup ecosystem.
Startups for many years have gathered capital through grants from nonprofits, and sometimes by raising equity from them. In a new twist, several nonprofit groups are launching or expanding investment programs by raising dedicated venture-capital funds of their own.
The American Cancer Society and Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation both recently have established venture funds. CureDuchenne, a group focused on the rare disease Duchenne muscular dystrophy, is planning to raise a fund. JDRF, which targets Type 1 diabetes, in 2016 launched its own venture fund.
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