If there’s one lesson from the many offered up by the pandemic, it’s that prioritizing better health is here to stay. And while we’re still processing the pain, loss and ongoing effects of the past few years across the province, Ontario is in a unique position to develop innovative life sciences IP today that can become the world-changing breakthroughs of tomorrow.
Already home to a remarkable cluster of top-ranked institutions, researchers, developers and manufacturers – not to mention approximately 100,000 workers in the medical technologies and life sciences ecosystem – there are so many fields within the sector primed to expand and scale.
That’s why the Ontario Centre of Innovation (OCI) is excited and proud to announce the Life Sciences Innovation Fund (LSIF), which is an early-stage co-investment fund that supports companies in Life Sciences and Healthcare Technologies sectors related to human health.
The fund is aimed at addressing the unique challenges faced by life sciences entrepreneurs moving innovative and capital-intensive investments from a conceptual stage through to commercialization. The objective of LSIF is to de-risk investments and attract private-sector capital to help scale made-in-Ontario solutions for global markets.
Keep in mind, Ontario is already a world leader in the space, with many medical innovations in the identification of genes for cystic fibrosis, cancer stem cells in leukemia, the external cardiac pacemaker, and of course, insulin itself.
But there are many other homegrown companies that are at the forefront of change all across the province. Toronto-based Synaptive Medical, which provides surgical planning and navigation, robotic digital microscopy and data platforms that are helping doctors see the brain and body in ways they never have before. Also in Toronto is Cyclica who integrate systems biology, medicinal chemistry, biophysics, and machine learning in the service of data-driven drug discovery. Based in Ottawa, Abbott is a global point of care market leader and advancing innovation across a variety of fields, including diagnostics, medical devices, nutrition and branded generic pharmaceuticals. In Sudbury, Rna Diagnostics is dedicated to improving the management of cancer treatments with its real-time therapy tool. And last but not least, Cloud DX is leading the charge with their medically accurate, consumer/clinical vital sign platform out of Kitchener, Ontario.
Interested in applying for the Life Sciences Innovation Fund? Here’s the criteria:
- Sectors The area of focus needs to be human health-related/life sciences with a minimum addressable market size of $100M.
- Funding Investment up to $500K at the pre-seed and seed stages.
- Geography Companies need to be headquartered and predominantly located within the province of Ontario with a headcount of over 50% located in the province.
- Stage Investing in early-stage company with competitive IP from the conceptual stage through commercialization
From a financial perspective, the team at OCI is looking for interested start-ups that have raised less than $3 million from third-party capital, are seeking to raise Pre-Seed and Seed investments (total round sizes range from $1 to $5 million) and have Ontario-based accredited investors as part of the investment round.
Ontario needs growth in high-value services sectors that can create high-paying, good-quality jobs. The life sciences can deliver that, and so much more. It’s one of the unique fields where the economic revenue potential is so high – as is the potential for improving millions of lives worldwide.
To learn more about the Life Sciences Innovation Fund (LSIF), please visit the website.
