Posts Tagged: raising venture capital
MaRS Innovation featured in International Innovation magazine
MaRS Innovation and its member institutions are is profiled in International Innovation's July issue (#191) in a feature interview with Dr. Rafi Hofstein, MI's president and CEO, written by Rosemary Peters.
The article is posted on the publication's website and viewable through a digital interface (pages 80 and 81).
Here's an excerpt from Dr. Hofstein's comments:
"Canada's academic research community is internationally highly competitive, but it has been argued that its scientific commercial success tags behind other countries such as the U.S. and the ...
Read more
Life Sciences Ontario’s statement on the 2015 Ontario Budget
TORONTO, ON (April 23, 2015) — Life Sciences Ontario (LSO) applauds the government's continued commitment to supporting life sciences through the Ontario Health Innovation Council and its accompanying $20 million innovation fund, programs to support job creation for Ontario’s highly educated young workforce and a new approach to providing the venture capital needed to support the commercialization of technologies and growth of companies in the life sciences sector.
Specifically, LSO notes the following commitments from the 2015 budget that will help drive ...
Read more
Life Sciences Ontario publishes first substantial benchmarking data for sector’s performance
If you work in the life sciences in Ontario, your wages are approximately 26.5 per cent higher than those of the provincial average. On the other hand, if you're a recent science graduate, you're facing a challenging unemployment rate of 18.9 per cent.
These are only two of the data points described in the Life Sciences Ontario (LSO) Sector Report 2015, which is the first of its kind to provide well-defined data that clearly measure and report on the sector's benchmarking and ...
Read more
Dr. Rafi Hofstein in Biotechnology Focus: What will it take to regain Canada’s biotechnology leadership?
Biotechnology Focus, a compendium of the Canadian life sciences industry, has published a guest column by MaRS Innovation President & CEO, Dr. Raphael Hofstein.
The article explores the role life sciences assets, financing and talented management--the three Ms--must play in revitalizing Canada's biotechnology sector:
At the close of the 20th century, Canada was perceived as a key contributor to the success of the global biotech voyage.
You know what happened next: the mechanisms to fund early ventures collapsed together with the collapse of the ...
Read more
Xagenic founder Shana Kelley’s MRI blog post on bringing research to market
U of T professor shares tips to her team's commercialization success
When it comes to bringing research from the lab to the market, the University of Toronto’s Dr. Shana Kelley knows firsthand what it takes. She’s co-founder of Xagenic, a MaRS Innovation and U of T start-up company that’s developed the first lab-free molecular diagnostic platform with a 20-minute time-to-result based on her research with fellow U of T colleague Professor Edward Sargent.
Xagenic recently announced a Series B financing announcement following their successful $10 million ...
Read more
Raphael Hofstein gives guest lecture on biotechnology commercialization at Stanford
Dr. Raphael Hofstein, president and CEO of MaRS Innovation, delivered a guest lecture on February 1,2013 at the Revitalizing Medical BioTechnology Commercialization symposium, hosted by Stanford University's NIH Graduate Training Program in Biotechnology.
The one-day event brought academic, venture capital and industry thought leaders together to reflect on the challenges facing technology transfer processes across the biotech industry. (more…)
Read more
Xconomy names Xagenic to 2012’s Biotech Startup Class
MI spin-off company one of 30 listed in North America and the United Kingdom
Xconomy, a U.S.-based business news website, named Xagenic to its 2012 Biotech Startup Class.
Luke Timmerman's article, published December 3, 2012, sited Xagenic as one of only 30 "exciting biotech startups" to raise significant venture capital (at least $5 million) in the life sciences sector.
Xagenic, founded by Drs. Shana Kelley and Ted Sargent at the University of Toronto, was also the only Canadian company named to the list. (more…)
Read more
Business Without Borders highlights ScarX Therapeutics’ Chinese co-development partnership
ScarX Therapeutics, a spin-off company created by MaRS Innovation and The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), was profiled by Business Without Borders on September 25, 2012.
Sean Fine's article examines the strategic funding partnership MI pursued with NovoTek Therapeutics Inc. (NovoTek) in China to develop the anti-scarring cream, which was discovered by researchers at SickKids.
A multibillion-dollar market may await ScarX, a Toronto biomedical start-up, but first it had to figure out how to finance the development of its unique cream that reduces scarring ...
Read more
VP Joel Liederman’s Financial Post article on mitigating innovation risk
MaRS Innovation's Vice-President of Business Development and Physical Sciences Joel Liederman, has published an article in the Financial Post about strategies to mitigate risk within the innovation space.
The article, titled "Innovation Success Means Mitigating Risk," is featured in the newspaper's Productive Conversations section. (more…)
Read more
Huffington Post Canada interviews Raphael Hofstein about Canadian venture capital shortage
Raphael Hofstein, president and CEO of MaRS Innovation, was interviewed by Huffington Post Canada business reporter Rachel Mendleson for an article about Canada's innovation gap and the shortage of Canadian venture capital:
One of the best ways to [raise venture capital], said Raphael Hofstein, President and CEO of Toronto-based MaRS Innovation, is to increase government investment, a lesson he learned while helping to create a life sciences early-stage fund in Israel several years ago.
“Everybody told us — institutions, industry — that they ...
Read more