Rev1 Ventures Launches $15MM Fund with The Ohio State University and Nationwide Children’s Hospital to Support Research-based Healthcare Innovation
Investor Startup Studio Triples Down on Infrastructure to Support Life Sciences Spinouts
Columbus, OH—December 17, 2019— Today, Rev1 Ventures , the investor startup studio that combines capital and strategic services to help startups scale and corporations innovate, is announcing the launch of its second fund focused on life sciences companies. The $15MM Rev1 Catalyst Fund II with investment from The Ohio State University, Nationwide Children’s Hospital and Rev1 is three times the size of the first Life Sciences fund and aims to deliver critical investment capital and support for research-based spinouts and healthcare innovators. As a result of the success of the Rev1 Life Sciences Fund I, which has helped industry trailblazers commercialize technologies and build successful companies bringing novel therapies and solutions to the market, this fund will continue to help Rev1 fulfill its mission to propel the creation of high growth companies in the region.
“Our impressive portfolio of life sciences companies underscores the tremendous opportunity for this industry in Central Ohio,” said Tom Walker, president and CEO of Rev1 Ventures. “We are proud to help innovators fulfill their potential and bring life-saving technologies and therapies to more people. By aligning champions of healthcare innovation, including prominent research institutions like The Ohio State University and Nationwide Children’s Hospital, we are helping to foster life sciences innovation and support entrepreneurs and scientists as they build and grow new companies. The Rev1 Catalyst Fund II is dedicated to expanding the infrastructure to support life sciences and attracting talent and like-minded investors to fuel commercialization.”
The Rev1 Life Sciences Fund I supports an impressive portfolio of companies driving the creation of innovative therapies and solutions, and has generated more than $250MM in exits, including the recent acquisitions of Celenex and Myonexus .
“Ohio State is committed to supporting our accomplished researchers at every point along the innovation pipeline,” said Cheryl Turnbull, senior director for new ventures at Ohio State. “Catalyst Fund II supports Ohio State’s land grant mission and will help advance the promising life sciences technologies being developed at Ohio State and in Columbus, accelerating medical breakthroughs to market where they can have a positive impact on people throughout the world.”
“We have many significant success stories about the power of this approach–from the world’s first digital pathology cloud-based platform, Deep Lens , to Milo Biotechnology , a startup working to reverse muscular dystrophy using gene therapy,” said Matt McFarland, vice president of commercialization and industry relations at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. “Myonexus, a Nationwide Children’s spinout that is developing the first-ever corrective gene therapy for limb-girdle muscular dystrophies, was recently acquired by Sarepta Therapeutics. Columbus has the foundational elements in place, so we anticipate this hotbed of activity will only get more robust.”
“Rev1 and Nationwide Children’s Hospital have been paramount to our success as well as to our ability to take a development and build a business around it,” said Dave Billiter, co-founder and CEO of Deep Lens. “In this field, it is critical that your investors and partners understand the industry, your potential, your market. The participation of these institutions and the fact that they are in our own backyard, is truly impacting lives and changing healthcare.”
For more information about the fund and to learn more about the life sciences startups working with Rev1 Ventures, visit: https://www.rev1ventures.com/our-companies/ .
About Rev1 Ventures
Rev1 Ventures is the investor startup studio that combines capital and strategic services to help startups scale and corporates innovate. Based in the Midwest, and in the number one city for scaling startups, Rev1 aligns innovators and founders with corporate and research partners to access customers and markets, helping entrepreneurs build great companies. With a proven track record of identifying, guiding and investing in high potential startups, Rev1 helps companies solve real problems for markets in need of real solutions. Rev1 has $100MM in capital under management, providing a capital continuum from corporate and community partners, as well as the Ohio Third Frontier. Rev1 is the most active seed investor in Ohio five years running, according to Pitchbook. For more information, visit www.rev1ventures.com .
About The Ohio State University
The Ohio State University was founded in 1870 following the Land-Grant College Act of 1862. Classes began in the fall of 1873 with 24 students. The first class of six men graduated in 1878, followed by the first woman graduate in 1879. Today, Ohio State is among the largest and most respected public research universities in the nation, with more than 66,000 students on six campuses. The spring 2019 graduating class of more than 12,000 was the largest in school history. Ohio State is known best for its vibrant student experience, research excellence, athletic prowess and highly engaged Buckeye family. The true strength of Ohio State is its people. Buckeye Nation includes more than 45,000 faculty and staff as well as 550,000 alumni living and working in 170 countries across the globe.
About Nationwide Children’s Hospital
Named to the Top 10 Honor Roll on U.S. News & World Report ’s 2019-20 list of “Best Children’s Hospitals,” Nationwide Children’s Hospital is one of America’s largest not-for-profit freestanding pediatric health care systems providing wellness, preventive, diagnostic, treatment and rehabilitative care for infants, children and adolescents, as well as adult patients with congenital disease. Nationwide Children’s has a staff of more than 13,000 providing state-of-the-art pediatric care during more than 1.5 million patient visits annually. As home to the Department of Pediatrics of The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Nationwide Children’s physicians train the next generation of pediatricians and pediatric specialists. The Abigail Wexner Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital is one of the Top 10 National Institutes of Health-funded freestanding pediatric research facilities. More information is available at NationwideChildrens.org .
MEDIA CONTACT:
Aimée Eichelberger
Press (at) rev1ventures (dot) com
