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Astellas Venture Capital: Aim Big

The foundation of every business, other than its product, is money. Earning money these days is as hard as finding one. Apart from a competitive market, a worldwide economic recession is also looming ahead. Venture capitalists have also become more cautious since losing from the dotcom bubble burst. Fortunately there are still venture capitalists willing to take on start up companies.

Science and technology has been a great interest for private equity firms. They prove positive returns in the long run as demands of a fast pace world continue. In the world of biotechnology, Astellas Venture Management is one of the sources of venture capital funds.

The company focuses on start up biotechnology companies. Its investment portfolio includes public companies such as Adherex Technologies, Memory Pharmaceuticals, and EPIX Pharmaceuticals. Private companies under them include F2G Ltd, FASgen, Inc., TaiGen Biotechnology Co., Ltd., and Alba Therapeutics Corporation.

Astellas established a branch in the America in 2006. The headquarters were located at Los Altos, California.

Astellas and biotech

Most venture capitalists invest in high technology businesses. Most of them prefer companies that apply innovative technology to their product or services. They invest large amounts of capital to start up businesses that have a lot of growth potential in science, research and development.

One of these private equity firms is Astellas Venture Management. Astellas was originally founded in Tokyo Japan. The company was formed after Yamanouchi Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. and Fujisawa Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. merged. Both of these companies have already been investing in biotechnology companies in Japan before Astellas was formed. Astellas is now managing funds of clients from Yamanouchi and Fujisawa, including new limited partnerships.

The focus of AVM is to find companies that have innovative technology and assist its growth by using its experience and network in the field of biotechnology. They offer investments for companies that have the potential to become leaders in the global market. They prefer emerging companies that are developing pharmaceutical seeds and new drug platforms. 

AVM is obviously a big firm. They have a comprehensive resource available to their clients from personnel networks to marketing operations. Apart from investments it also provides companies with scientific and technical proficiency, experience in drug development, marketing knowledge and long-term perspective. This is a big opportunity for those companies who want to have rapid growth and success.

For those companies with a very ambitious management team this will be good partnership for them. AVM caters to no less than large markets that span globally not just locally. Their parent company called Astellas Pharma Inc. is one of the top pharmaceutical companies. This gives them the edge when it comes to experience. They are a cut above the rest when it comes to disease areas such as Immunology and Urology. The form is interested in the fields of Cancer, Pain, Diabetes and metabolic diseases.

Having a pharmaceutical company is both good for entrepreneurs and investors. One of areas that are cannot be touched by recession is health care and medical services. Although being responsible for the well being of many people is a challenge it can also be rewarding.

If you wish to delve in to a more competitive atmosphere and target a large market then you can go AVM, provided that you do have the scientific capabilities to back it up.

Finding Angel Venture Capital in Honolulu

More and more companies worldwide are seeking venture capital to finance their companies. This is shown by the remarkable increase in the number of investors and firms. Firms spend billions of dollars yearly on these investments. As a result, firms have expanded their network and there emerged this new group called angel investors.

While the firms in the past concentrated on building companies within their geographical area, firms and angel investors have gone international that they are now funding companies in some parts near the Pacific and even as far as Southeast Asia. That is why even if you reside in Honolulu, you can still find angel venture capital.

Angel investors are basically the same as venture capital firms in that they help finance start-up companies. But the similarity ends there. Angel investors are wealthy individuals who are willing to invest personal funds, while firms are sometimes funded by other institutions. They may be composed of a few or more investors, depending on the amount that they contribute.

Their investments usually range from a few thousand dollars to about $2 Million, committing to contribute specific amounts of investment every year rather than to give the amount in bulk at one time. Venture capital firms have higher investments because they can finance up to $10-20 Million.

Firms usually focus on the fields of technology in their investment criteria, while angel investors are open to other industry sectors like software development, production and services. This means that if your proposal is innovative and not technology-related, then there is a bigger chance for you to raise angel venture capital than ordinary venture capital.

While firms may finance companies in their later stages and also in their expansion, angel investors focus more on start-up companies, resulting in a more risky investment.

Because of the higher risk, there is the necessity to yield a higher return, between 20-30%. That is why they are more careful in screening and choosing their investments. Members themselves help in the screening process. Presentations are done in their regular meetings, and it is during such time when they individually decide to invest or not. Application is often a multi-step process. What investors usually look for are companies with a potential growth of 1,000% in 5-7 years.

If you seek angel venture capital, you must have a fully-developed product. Because capital is rather minimal, it must be spent in the actual production and marketing and not on product development or research. A unique, innovative product or service will greatly impress these investors.

Also, show them that you have potential customers. Make a demonstration on how fast the business is most likely to grow. Lastly, find a strong, competent management team. This will give the investors confidence in your proposed company.

Having rather smaller resources than most firms, these investors operate in networks. This is to share the risk among them.

It is estimated that there are 225,000 angel investors and thousands of angel investor networks in the US, and still growing. This means that there are more angel investors than venture capital firms, which are approximately 600. With the many investors available, finding angel venture capital in Honolulu should not be a problem.

Browse through websites, make a few searches. Some angel investors, although not based in Hawaii, do finance companies in this State.