DEALFLOWUPDATE Issue #23. Friday, January 11 Hello everyone and Happy New Year! We are looking forward to another productive year. For this newsletter, we’ll be doing something similar to last time and looking at the different interest areas we will be pursuing with new deals. This shows the breadth of possible technologies that all potentially fit our core fund metrics of major innovations, IP potential and platform applications. To learn more about our core fund diligence and metrics visit our site.Happy holidays, -Neal P.S. Our readership continues to grow! please subscribe if you’re new and continue to share with others on social media. Connect with us, we would love to hear from you! Dealflow Smith & Nephew to acquire Ceterix Orthopaedics for $105M For our first area, we continue to be interested in innovations for orthopedics. This is an area that sees significant acquisition activity and yet needs more and more innovation. In addition to the example, which involves knee surgery, we have seen interesting activity for orthopedic adhesives, coatings and surgical tools. Read More Medtronic finalizes its $1.7B purchase of Mazor Robotics The next interest area is robotic surgery; this can also be combined with orthopedic surgery. Robotic surgery will continue to make inroads into direct surgeon involvement in minimally invasive surgery. There is significant space for not just the robotic instruments themselves, but also technology that enables the automation and better detection of target areas, such as cancer, during the surgery itself. Read More Braincheck Raises $1.5M For Neurocognitive Testing Platform We also continue to actively search for, and diligence, companies in the brain testing and therapy space. Neural detection can not only better diagnose mental conditions and injuries, but also are needed to guide surgical and non-invasive therapies. This is a significant need area, particularly for therapies that can address conditions without the need for pharmaceuticals with significant side effects. Read More DermaSensor Raises $5.8M For Mobile Cancer Detection Device Diagnostics have always been an interest area for us, particularly those that further reduce the size, cost and complexity of hardware. We generally look for consumer focused diagnostic devices and businesses, as we feel that this can truly democratize medicine. High risk diagnostics, such as for cancer, are sometimes avoided, though, due to the high regulatory requirements. However, in some cases the regulatory requirements can be reduced with fast track pathways or with initial applications that are less invasive such as with skin cancer. Read More Iota Biosciences Raises $15M To Produce Micro In-Body Sensors And lastly, we continue to look for enabling technologies, i.e. technology platforms that can be applied to multiple areas. For example, a new manufacturing method or new electronics that can make many diagnostics and surgeries smaller and cheaper. This can include sensors that are magnitudes smaller than current methods, which can enable real-time monitoring of body conditions and a new level of accuracy, and yet still be less expensive. Read More Spotlight #ZoicNews Zoic Capital Senior Advisor Vivienne Ming, recently appeared on the Financial Times Tech Tonic podcast with John Thornhill, FT innovation editor on the topic of solving human problems. A theoretical neuroscientist, entrepreneur and artificial intelligence guru, Vivienne speaks in detail about her work in trying to make technology work for the benefit of humans. The Tech Tonic podcast is a weekly conversation that looks at the way technology is changing our economies, societies and daily lives. “We need not only more responsible applications of AI, but an understanding that real world data is messy. And if we’re looking at correlations it’s going to mislead us. I actually think its deeper and more fundamental than that. We need to understand how to actually solve problems before we think or allow the AI’s to try and solve them for us.” – Vivienne Ming, with FT innovation editor John Thornhill. ShareTweetForward What We’re ReadingARS AI Can Diagnose Some Genetic Disorders Using Photos of Faces PIT First Impressions From CES: A Deluge of Data NYT Some Venture Capitalists Are Rooting For a Market Dip NAU What Is This Thing Called Consciousness? Connect With Zoic CapitalThe Biweekly Dealflow Update, curated by the team at Zoic Capital. |