New San Antonio Venture Fund - Targeted Technology Fund I, LP Announces Its First Investment
July 15, 2009
One of the greatest challenges in building a sustainable technology sector in San Antonio has been the lack of having a local venture capital fund that was actually based here in town. That’s starting to change, even amidst the economic downturn, let alone the decline in VC funding in traditional regions like Silicon Valley, New York, Boston, and Israel.
San Antonio-based Targeted Technology Fund I, LP has just announced that it has closed its first round of funding and has made its first investment in Vidacare. This is a really big deal because Targeted Technology Fund is from here, is investing here, and has its eyes and ears and key team members in Texas, Alabama, Colorado and Georgia.
The investment in Vidacare is compelling. I met founder, Dr. Larry Miller, back in 2001, just when he was getting the company going. Since then, the company has won numerous awards for a simple and ingenious patented power-driver and needle technology to provide a safe and effective method to access the intraosseous space (inside the bone).
Yesterday, Vidacare announced that it had closed a $7.6 million private equity Series D1 financing. The financing will provide capital to launch Vidacare’s hematology/oncology product, the OnControl™ Bone Marrow System, and its OnControl Bone Access System for spinal surgical procedures as well as provide support for ongoing global expansion efforts for its EZ-IO® Vascular Access System. The financing was led by Piper Jaffray, along with Tullis Health Investors, Targeted Technology Fund I which this story is about, and from the existing investor base.
The fund has also managed to attract some great institutions and local leaders who bring a great deal of credibility.
One of the significant investors in the new Fund is the Texas Research & Technology Foundation, which is comprised of multiple organizations whose work involves various stages of the very complicated drug development process. Graham Weston, Chairman of the Board of Rackspace; Bruce Barshop, a founder of Barshop Ventures LLC; and David Spencer, who is president of Texas Intrepid Ventures, a San Antonio-based investment firm, are also included in the pool of individual investors who share the Fund’s vision.
BioMed SA Chair and former San Antonio Mayor Henry Cisneros also openly encourages the Fund’s creation, citing the industry’s strong growth potential. “San Antonio has a track record of developing lifesaving medical devices, such as the Palmaz® Stent, Titanium Rib, and Vidacare’s EZ-I0®,” said Cisneros. “The city’s four pillars of biomedical excellence – clinical care, medical education, biomedical research, and bioscience firms – provide the foundation for continued growth in this sector.”
The fund itself has an impressive management team, comprising of:
- Managing Director Alan Dean - who brings more than 25 years experience in the technology development industry with experience in venture capital and technology transfer, both in the private and non-profit sectors. Dean is the former director of the University of Texas Health Science Center’s Office of Technology Ventures, so he gets how to take IP and turn it into real businesses that create intellectual and capital wealth.
- Managing Director, Dr. Paul Castella, is a real live doc and a business person with an MBA who’s been involved in experienced in the evaluation, financing, licensing, formation and operation of biotechnology and medical technology companies, including CardioSpectra, BiO2 Medical and Aeon Bioscience. Castella is the co-founder and CEO of ViroXis which is developing an anti-viral treatment that recently completed an FDA IND phase IIb study.
- Managing Director Christopher E. Banas is a medical device industry veteran with over thirty years of extensive leadership experience in cardiovascular company start-up, financing and management. Banas has held various engineering and executive management positions at medical device companies such as W.L. Gore, Guidant/ACS and IMPRA/C.R. Bard. Banas holds 33 U.S. patents in the fields of cardiovascular medicine and nanotechnology. Intellectual property portfolios developed by Banas have, in part, resulted in deals valued in excess of $250 million, not including the value of future royalty income. Along with Dr. Julio Palmaz, the inventor of the balloon expandable stent, Banas co-founded and held the position of CEO and President in ABPS, a San Antonio based medical device company which has subsequently licensed all its technology to Cordis, a Johnson and Johnson Company (NYSE: JNJ). Banas, along with Castella, then co-founded CardioSpectra where Banas held the position of Chairman and CEO and Castella held the position of CFO and President. CardioSpectra was awarded funds from Governor Perry’s Emerging Technology
- I’ve personally known Fund Partner, Lukin T. Gilliland, Jr, for almost 20 years. He’s smart, gets business and politics and has vast experience in real estate, health care, ranching and restaurant businesses including 29 Black Eyed Pea restaurants in four states, the landmark Broadway 50-50 Bar & Grill in San Antonio and two Elway’s restaurants in Denver, CO. He’s a native San Antonian, and serves as chairman of the San Antonio Development Board of the Nature Conservancy, is a member of the Advisory Board of the Cibolo Nature Center, the Former Texas Ranger’s Association, the Board of Visitors of the McDonald Observatory and the Board of Directors of the San Antonio Library Foundation.
Congratulations to Vidacare, the amazing fund’s management team– and kudos to the first round of institutional and individual investors who are making a huge contribution in advancing our great city’s medical technology on to the national and international scene.
