Show notes
As we’ve seen from the last two years, BioTech holds immense promise for the future but brings along challenges as an investor into the space. Today we have a lively discussion with two sides of the BioTech investing world, Peter van der Velden, General Partner and Managing director of Lumira Ventures, and Anthony Mouchantaf, Director, Venture Capital at RBCx.About Anthony Mouchantaf:As Director of Venture Capital with RBCx, Anthony works closely with partners across RBC on the bank’s venture investment strategy and leads the venture fund finance group. Prior to joining RBC Anthony was a VC-backed startup founder and a venture capital investor with OMERS Ventures, based out of the fund’s London and Toronto offices.About Peter van der Velden:With 28 years of investment and operating experience, Peter has participated in building companies from start-up through to expansion in the life sciences, information technology, and consumer sectors. Peter’s experience includes: Founder of a boutique merchant bank focused on private IT-based companies, Head of Investment Banking for a boutique investment bank focused on the public IT-based companies, Partner in a buyout partnership targeting retail and consumer-centric businesses; Vice President Business Development for a venture capital-backed drug delivery company; and an Associate role at Canada’s then-largest venture capital firm. Peter started his working career with Canada’s largest independent vaccine manufacturer.A word from our sponsor:For anyone that is lucky enough to be a part of building startups, we’ve all seen that mad-rush to answer extensive security questionnaires and implement SOC 2 controls the moment that big whale of a client is on the hook in order to not lose the deal. Which unfortunately ends up swallowing the entire organization's time and resources in the hopes to land that whale, right? Lucky for us at Ripple, we have partnered with compliance automation provider Drata. Drata saves our portfolio companies from these same issues when it comes to effectively proving a strong, ongoing security posture and achieving frameworks like SOC 2 and ISO 27001.Drata allows startups to put Security and Compliance on Autopilot. Companies using Drata experience an average time savings of 85% when compared to running the SOC 2 process manually. Build trust with customers by proving your commitment to security, and maintain continuous compliance in between your audits. Don’t take it from us, Drata works with all kinds of startups like ClearCo, Lemonade, FullStory, Slice and countless others. They're backed by top venture funds such as Okta Ventures and GGV, and are currently G2's number one ranked cloud compliance software provider for customer satisfaction. Listeners of Tank Talks can get set up with a demo of Drata and take advantage of a 15% discount offer and waived implementation fees by visiting drata.com/tanktalks to get setup today.In this episode we discuss:03:32 Peter’s journey to becoming a BioTech investor06:04 What the Canadian BioTech scene was like 10 years ago07:36 How Anthony convinced the team at RBCx to take BioTech seriously08:52 The pandemic’s role in convincing LPs to take BioTech seriously11:33 Peter’s take on why institutional investors have started to take BioTech investing more seriously15:09 How life sciences has more liquidity than traditional tech sectors17:07 How the life sciences market has matured over the last 10 years18:21 Insight into how investment committees at institutional investors work and how they look at biotech and life sciences23:26 Why life sciences can be intimidating to traditional investors30:57 What needs to happen to get Canadian investors more comfortable with investing in BioTech35:15 Why making unicorns isn’t everything in investing38:09 What value RBCx brings to the table besides capital41:40 How to manage LP communications in the BioTech space48:13 How Canada can become a global life sciences powerhouseFast FavoritesPodcastAnthonyThis is Actually HappeningPeterMasters of ScaleAmerican InnovationsNewsletter/BlogAnthonyVisual CapitalistPeterStat NewsTech GadgetAnthonyOura RingPeterApple WatchTrendAnthonyTikTokPeterWork-Life Balance from remote workBookAnthonyThe Federalist PapersPeterAtlas Shrugged by Ayn RandFollow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here!Podcast production support provided by Agentbee.Agency This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tanktalks.substack.com
