We invest in promising, high-impact scienctific and other healthcare solutions that are unlikely to meet existing funding needs through traditional capital sources
It's no secret that healthcare funding is tight. Grant dollars available for basic research have plateaued over the last decade. Commercial funding of deployable (or near deployable), high profit healthcare solutions has declined over the same period. Nevertheless, most of the capital supporting high-impact healthcare innovation funds these two parts of the continuum. Many great ideas never get off the ground or make it out of the lab. Even solutions that do get funding often don't reach the markets or demographics where they would have the greatest long term impact.
Program Related Investments (PRIs) can help tackle this problem. PRIs are a powerful tool that can support great projects that don't fit neatly into traditional grant or investment boxes. In particular, Springhood makes PRIs in the following areas that desperately need support:
Translational and early clinical research
For our purposes, these are the first steps in taking good research from the lab to the bedside or community. Grant money typically dries up through this progression, while commercial investors find it too risky (both likelihood of success and time to market). This gap is often referred to as the "Valley of Death" or the "Idea to Impact Gap."
Program Related Investments (PRIs) can help tackle this problem. PRIs are a powerful tool that can support great projects that don't fit neatly into traditional grant or investment boxes. In particular, Springhood makes PRIs in the following areas that desperately need support:
Translational and early clinical research
For our purposes, these are the first steps in taking good research from the lab to the bedside or community. Grant money typically dries up through this progression, while commercial investors find it too risky (both likelihood of success and time to market). This gap is often referred to as the "Valley of Death" or the "Idea to Impact Gap."
The negative impact is two-fold:
- Great research that could make a difference often ends up on a shelf gathering dust, and
- Well-intentioned grant money ends up having no impact
Springhood PRIs can fund projects that may be embarking on the for-profit path necessary to get a solution to market (making them difficult for traditional grant-makers) but that are still too risky for mainstream for-profit investors.
Small market and lower profit solutions
Many healthcare solutions don't receive the capital necessary to bring them to market because the size of the market is too small. For example, the child-health market (the focus of our CH Innovations fund) struggles to attract capital in the face of the behemoth geriatric market. This applies to both companies focused on child-health exclusively and companies with a broader focus that often give smaller markets, like child health, a lower priority when rolling out products.
Similarly, many viable solutions that would have tangible near and/or long term impact don't get funded because there isn't quite enough "upside." Nevertheless, many of these solutions can still be profitable enough to sustain the business. Financing the deployment of a solution in an impoverished part of the world may not earn as much profit as if it were done in a well financed healthcare system, but frequently the impact is far greater.
Great ideas by young researchers
We believe that some of the most innovative and highest impact concepts are developed by scientists in the early years of their careers. However, funding for younger researchers is disappearing.
|
|
With the dual hurdle of slow career advancement and limited funding, even for good ideas, many talented researchers are looking to the private market to help transition their ideas to deployable solutions. Springhood's PRIs can help create more career paths for promising young investigators while increasing the odds that high impact ideas get the attention they deserve.