Initiate Ventures co-founders Jessica Owens and Iana Dimkova are launching a new company focused on healthcare/life sciences after raising an impressive $45 million in debut funding.
One of the ways they've convinced limited partners to become investors is because they're building companies that are a mix of early-stage companies and incubation companies. So, not only will they invest in early-stage startups at the intersection of technology and life sciences, but they will also seek to incubate some startups internally – finding founders to turn ideas into companies. .
Incubation is “a model that has worked very well in life sciences so far,” Dimkova said, citing companies such as Flagship Pioneering, which launched Moderna. “Their entire investment strategy is really underpinned by incubation and following companies as they expand.”
While some venture firms incubate technology startups, such as health tech startups, Initiate's focus on health and life sciences sets it apart, Dimkova said.
Start a co-founder and split your time and effort between investing in existing seed and Series A companies (checks range from $500,000 to $3 million) and launching new companies through Venture Studio . Typically, one of them takes on the role of interim CEO upon formation.
They have a sincere stance against these types of companies. They have each spent nearly 20 years as entrepreneurs and investors in the healthcare space.
Before launching Initiate, Owens (pictured above) co-founded Grail, an early cancer detection company that was acquired by Illumina in 2020 for $8 billion. She also held executive roles in several other startups and was a healthcare investor at Kleiner Perkins in the late 2000s.
Meanwhile, Dimkova (pictured above, left) is an investor in the corporate venture fund GE Ventures and was one of the most active health technology investors in the 2000s and early last decade. Prior to that, he was an early team member at ProCure Treatment Center, a national radiation therapy provider.
Initiate's venture studio has already founded five startups, four of which have already secured additional financing from Initiate itself or other VC firms. One such company is Persana, a cosmetic and plastic surgery concierge that provides advice and matches patients with top practitioners across the United States.
The company's other investments include Macro Trials, a clinical trial platform that matches pharmaceutical companies with participants, especially people from diverse backgrounds. Cornerstone AI is a startup that uses AI to automate the cleaning of medical data in electronic medical records, medical registries, billing, and clinical trials. Some of the initiators are still operating in secrecy, including a liquid biopsy startup with a focus outside oncology.