Rockhill Partners

Rockhill Partners
Private
Industry Venture capital
Founded 2005
Website www.rockhill-partners.com

Rockhill Partners is an early-stage venture capital partnership. The firm invests in companies in the life science and technology sectors throughout the U.S. Current investments include Proteon Therapeutics, Orbis Biosciences and Infegy.

Portfolio companies

Rockhill's first investment was Proteon Therapeutics. Proteon's core technology was created by Dr. F. Nicholas Franano while at Johns Hopkins University. Proteon has secured nearly $80 million from investors including Novartis, MPM Capital, TVM Lifesciences, Skyline Ventures and Intersouth Partners to develop the company's lead drug compound. This drug, currently known as PROT-201, could prove vital in managing some of the worst problems encountered with kidney dialysis. In March 2009, Proteon entered into an option agreement with Novartis to be acquired for up to $550 million as certain development milestone are met.[1]

Rockhill's second investment, LightSpeed Genomics, was based on technology created at MIT. According to In Sequence, a publication which covers the race to decode the human genome, "LightSpeed Genomics, based in Sunnyvale, Calif., is developing a high-speed DNA sequencing platform that 'will allow human genome sequencing to be performed more quickly and less expensively than ever before,' according to the company’s website...LightSpeed founder and CEO Josh (Jekwan) Ryu told In Sequence...that the company is currently in stealth mode and not yet ready to talk about its plans. Ryu, who holds a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is a former Affymetrix staff scientist with 3 patents (US2005/0239113, US2005/0239114, US2005/0239115). Stanley Hong, a former colleague of Mr. Ryu from MIT, is a co-founder and chief technology officer of the company...Formerly called Solametrix, LightSpeed Genomics received an undisclosed amount of funding from Rockhill Partners and other angel investors in March 2007."[2][3] In 2009, two Korean companies, Macrogen Corporation and the Korean Technology Investment Fund, teamed up to acquire LightSpeed from its original investors.

Professor George M. Church of Harvard University chairs LightSpeed's scientific advisory board.[4] With Nobel prize winner Walter Gilbert, Church developed the first direct genomic sequencing method and helped initiate the Human Genome Project, both in 1984. Church and a team are currently competing in the Archon X-Prize Competition. To win the $10 million genomics prize purse, teams must successfully sequence 100 human genomes within 10 days for less than $10,000 per genome.[5]

Rockhill's third publicly disclosed investment, Orbis Biosciences, was formed around technology created at the University of Illinois. Orbis is a micro particle fabrication company for pharma and agricultural applications like sustained release drugs and taste masking.[6] An April 2009 story in the Kansas City Business Journal featured Orbis vice president Maria Stecklein.[7]

Two of Rockhill's partners have been involved in incubating Infegy, Inc. Infegy was founded by Justin Graves and Adam Coomes to commercialize SocialRadar. SocialRadar is a social media monitoring, measurement and management tool for the web. Clients include numerous advertising agencies and corporate clients.[8]

References

  1. ↑ "Proten Therapeutics Lands $38 million, option to sell for $550 million, Kansas City Business Journal, March 5, 2009, accessed April 5, 2009. Link to http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/stories/2009/03/02/daily31.html
  2. ↑ Staff (February 5, 2008). "Pacific Biosciences, LightSpeed Genomics, Affymetrix, NSF, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, 454 Life Sciences, Roche Diagnostics, University of Miami". In Sequence. GenomeWeb. Archived from the original on February 11, 2008.(subscription required)
  3. ↑ The company's website is located at http://www.lsgen.com
  4. ↑ See Church's cv at http://arep.med.harvard.edu/gmc/tech.html
  5. ↑ See http://www.xprize.org/genomics/press-release/revolutionary-geneticist-dr-george-church-to-compete-for-the-archon-x-prize-f
  6. ↑ The company's website is located at http://www.orbisbio.com
  7. ↑ "Capital Conundrum: financing is available for companies with right strategy. Viewed on April 5, 2009. http://kansascity.bizjournals.com/kansascity/stories/2009/03/30/smallb1.html
  8. ↑ Infegy's website is located at http://www.infegy.com
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