How Does Polaris Partners Invest in the Life Sciences?

Who is Polaris Partners & How Do They Fund Research?

Private equity and venture capital firms play a pivotal role in introducing innovative and affordable solutions to health infrastructure. They do so by supporting startups that bring transformative and revolutionary alternative solutions to fatal disease problems.

Polaris Partners is one such investment firm that’s committed to building companies working on life-changing solutions. They partner with healthcare founders and support them in their entrepreneurial journey towards developing approaches that accelerate and scale-up medical operations—benefiting people’s health.

The firm has a particular interest in healthcare, software, and biotech startups. It helps them across all stages of entrepreneurship, from founding the company to guiding them towards professional growth.

Terry McGuire, Jon Flint, and Steve Arnold are the founding partners of Polaris Partners, who established the company in 1996 (earlier known by the name of Polaris Venture Partners). Today, the company has headquarters in three different cities of the United States: Boston, San Francisco, and New York.

Polaris Partners has a team of entrepreneurs, scientists, and operators that help shape transformative early-stage companies. The company’s key players are its managing partners, David Barrett, Brian Chee, Amir Nashat, and Bryce Youngren. Together, they focus on doing what’s best for the company’s growth in the investment space.

In this article, you will learn about the types of funds provided by Polaris Partners and the companies they have supported in the healthcare market.

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Polaris Main Funds

Polaris’ main funds provide capital to life sciences, healthcare, and biopharmaceutical companies. Its top-funded companies include those in which co-investments have been made with the Polaris Growth Fund and the Polaris Innovation Funds.

Main Funded Companies & Ventures

Either directly or indirectly, Polaris Partners has invested in hundreds of companies through its main funds by implementing a growth buyout strategy. Some of the companies benefited by this fund are:

  • Editas Medicine: A genome editing company committed to developing novel medicines and therapies for a broad range of genetic diseases by utilizing the CRISPR gene-editing tool.
  • Ember: A technological company that develops temperature control mugs. Their patented technology allows the consumers to set the desired temperature for their hot beverages.
  • Cybersafe: A leading provider of global security software. It avails enterprise-class security to businesses on the internet or in the cloud. Its TrustBroker products integrate seamlessly with SAP and Sybase, providing end-to-end security to the company’s in-transit application data.
  • Hydra Biosciences: A pharmaceutical company with expertise in novel ion channels. It uses its expertise in developing novel solutions to treat inflammation, cardiovascular diseases, pain, and other diseases.  
  • Primmune Therapeutics: A biotechnology company that develops an orally-administered toll-like receptor (TLR7) to prevent and treat fatal diseases like cancers and acute and chronic viral infections.

The Polaris Innovation Fund

The Polaris Innovation Fund helps companies establish, grow, and strengthen their therapeutic and commercial potential of early-stage scientific research. As the name suggests, this fund is dedicated to backing companies who are not yet fully established, but have the potential to create innovative solutions to varying real-world problems.

The leaders working on implementing this active investment model are experts in venture capital investment, scientific research, and biopharma. They provide guidance at every development stage of biomedical innovations, ensuring their prompt time to market.  

Innovation Funded Companies & Ventures

Some early-stage companies and biomedical innovation supported by the Polaris innovation fund include:

  • Amagma Therapeutics: A biopharma company that harnesses the potential of monoclonal antibodies to develop therapy/medicines for a broad array of inflammatory diseases.
  • Engine Biosciences: A biotechnology company that integrates artificial intelligence and a genomics network platform to decipher the complexity of biological systems. Their cutting-edge technologies help researchers in drug discovery and cellular reprogramming.
  • Folx Health: A telehealth and wellness company centered around the LGBTQIA community. It offers virtual care and medications, as well as other personalized and Queer-competent healthcare services and products.
  • Sesh Therapy: It provides therapies specifically benefitting the mental health of people. Sesh has online group sessions conducted by expert therapists, helping address anxiety, depression, and providing techniques to deal with stress.
  • Kronos Bio: A biopharmaceutical company that’s committed to discovering and developing novel cancer therapies. They exploit small molecule regulators that target dysregulated transcriptions and treat undruggable cancer diseases.

The Polaris Growth Fund

The Polaris Growth Fund is for well-established ventures that have built their leadership position and reputation in the market for their products.

Growth Funded Companies & Ventures

Companies that benefit from the Polaris Growth Fund are primarily in the technology business industries. Some example companies in this category include:

  • DigiCert: One of the trusted providers of TLS/SSL certificates and PKI management resources. Its services help organizations save time and manage users and devices at any scale.
  • Xpressdocs: A leading technology company that offers robust, customizable marketing solutions for enterprises to enhance the efficiency of their marketing campaigns and customer satisfaction.
  • Strata Health Solutions: A provider of healthcare solutions that enhance customer engagement and satisfaction. Its products include decision-support tools, automated patient-provider matching algorithms, eReferrals, and patient priority and vacancy management solutions.

Find more about the investment strategies, plans, and portfolio companies of Polaris Partners at: www.polarispartners.com, or visit their LinkedIn profile for any updates.

Excedr, a Founder- & Investor-friendly Partner  

Polaris Partners is a venture capital firm providing financial services and support to healthcare and technology companies in different stages of their growth. Founded in 1996, the company is led by experts in diverse areas including technology, healthcare, scientific research, and venture capital investment.

The company has three main types of funds:

  • Growth funds for technology companies that are already established.
  • Innovation funds for early-stage academic research and biomedical innovation companies.
  • Main funds that involve combined fundings from both the Growth and Innovation funds.

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