BioAdvance - Process
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Process

Submitting an Application

We make our investments using a three-stage process:

We generally require four months to evaluate an application and obtain outside business and technical reviews.  Once companies are selected for funding we conduct additional due diligence prior to finalizing the budget, funding milestones and our investment documents.  This phase varies in duration, depending upon the nature of the underlying issues and the stage of the company.

Companies and investigators may submit materials for funding consideration at any time by emailing an executive summary, investor presentation, BFTP applications (submitted within the last six months) or business plan to Marnie McCoy the BioAdvance Program Director at (mmccoy@bioadvance.com). 

If you are an investigator from an academic institution please email a summary of the technology, a list of the intellectual property and an outline of intended use of funds.  We ask that you notify your technology transfer office that you are submitting materials to BioAdvance.

For those interested in applying for the Entrepreneur Start-up Kit please contact Marnie McCoy at (mmccoy@bioadvance.com) for further information.

Please note that whether submitting an executive summary, investor presentation, BFTP application or business plan there is information that BioAdvance will want to assess during its review of the opportunity.  This information includes:

For further details regarding the types of information BioAdvance looks for under each of these topics, please see the "Request for Proposals" document.
 

If content addressing these topics are not adequately covered in the initial materials, BioAdvance will request additional documentation to address these issues during the review process.  We will work with each applicant on a case-by-case basis if there is missing information. The better the information you submit the sooner we can make a preliminary determination. 

Further information regarding the BioAdvance review process, eligibility requirements and investment terms can be found in the "Request for Proposals" document.  In addition, we encourage all applicants to review the "BioAdvance Funding Workshop Presentation" which is particularly useful in understanding how BioAdvance thinks and the typical pitfalls that we encountered in our review of investment opportunities. 

 

Review Process

Overview

We generally require four months to evaluate an application and obtain outside business and technical reviews. We use our internal resources to evaluate applications, and typically also engage subject matter experts and an advisory panel. We have two goals. First, we want to identify the most promising projects for funding. Second, we want to provide applicants with high-quality feedback about the proposal.

Our internal resources include our senior management team and experienced consultants. Our subject matter experts are matched to each proposal. They validate the technology, and often provide new and useful ideas about markets, methodologies, and milestones.

Our advisory panel is an interdisciplinary group with substantial experience in venture capital, business development or management of life sciences companies.

We review applications each week, and issue queries if there are gaps in the submission or if we need clarification. Based on our initial review, we will screen out proposals that are ineligible or incomplete. If we decline your proposal, we will provide a notification and a rationale for our decision via the messaging system. If we are interested in further evaluating your proposal, we will provide instructions and may ask additional questions.

Once we have completed our initial internal review, we will identify at least one subject mattter expert to review the application. The reviewers assigned to the application will provide an assessment of its merit.

Questions the reviewers will address include:

If your application makes it successfully through that subject matter expert reviews we will further vet your plan commercially either by inviting you into present to an advisory panel made up of representatives from the venture capital community or if the venture route is not the next most likely step forward we will test the market by speaking to potential corporate partners.

Funding

To move from decision to final funding requires negotiation of a term sheet, a final budget and funding milestones, due diligence, and execution of a final funding agreement and convertible note. This phase varies in duration, depending upon the nature of the underlying issues and the stage of the company.

Terms Sheet

Once BioAdvance makes a decision to move forward, we will negotiate a term sheet with successful applicants, to ensure agreement on key points. This is necessary given the time and effort required to complete due diligence.

Due Diligence

Prior to disbursement of funds, BioAdvance will conduct a due diligence review of key documents, financial information, and intellectual property. We also require background checks of key managers and contractors.

Funding Agreement

If the due diligence is satisfactory, we execute a funding agreement with the applicant. This agreement contains the term structure (described above), and also specifies a funding schedule, budget, project milestones, and reporting obligations.

Term Sheet