Info

Versant is committed to transforming healthcare through innovation, and invests in all segments of healthcare including, medical devices, life sciences, healthcare services and healthcare information technology. Within these segments, Versant seeks visionary companies, which target markets where the opportunity exists to make significant and dramatic clinical improvements. As, such, Versant invests in companies with compelling value propositions involving proprietary technology and/or defensible service models. These companies must have highly differentiated products or services that represent substantial innovation over existing practices. While these investments are typically primarily in early stage companies, Versant has and will occasionally invest in later stage companies with the right attributes. Team, Market, Technology, and Business Model are the four most important components Versant Ventures assesses in evaluating companies. We seek seasoned entrepreneurs who have passion, coupled with the requisite skill set, which positions them for success. While we clearly always value teams with deep expertise, we also recognize that early-stage companies rarely have all the expertise they desire. At a minimum, we confirm that the appropriate team might be built if those skills don't already exist. We carefully evaluate teams, and look for positive references from our extensive network of contacts in the healthcare community before we invest in any opportunity. Some of the questions we may evaluate include: Do the leaders possess an in-depth understanding of the business, science, and market opportunities? Do these determined minds have a passion for success and a vision for the future? Are they ready to meet the challenges of building a large company? If there is not sufficient experience, can the team recruit the necessary talent? We seek large market opportunities and will not invest in a new company unless the opportunity has at least $500 million in annualized potential in the US. While it's often difficult to forecast market size, particularly in nascent markets, we still look for a realistic analysis of the size of a market, after segmenting by target customers via both a top-down and bottom-up analysis. Some of the questions we may evaluate include: Is the opportunity targeting an annualized market opportunity greater than $500 million a year? Can the company generate $100 million to $500 million in annual sales? Will the market dynamics encourage rapid adoption of the company's products or services? Who's paying for the product or service?