Life sciences funding meets challenges in changing market

Investors highlighted challenges and strategic models in life sciences funding, in a forum co-hosted by Lipa Meir & Co.

A panel of leading investors convened in Tel Aviv for the "Life Sciences Funding Forum" co-hosted by Lipa Meir & Co. and the Israel Advanced Technology Industries (IATI) to discuss funding strategies for startups in life sciences, focusing on structural challenges, new models of capital investment, and the evolving relationship between entrepreneurs and investors. The panel, entitled "Transforming Life Sciences: Funding Strategies in a Changing Market," was moderated by Adv. Gary Copelovitz, Co-Head of Technology at the Lipa Meir law firm.

"The name of the game is planning, planning ahead," said Copelovitz in a message to entrepreneurs. "It all depends on your needs and the stage you’re at- but essentially, the key is to plan ahead. Take the best from wherever you can, and discard the downsides wherever possible. Fundraising isn’t just about securing money; it's about making strategic decisions early. Maximize your resources and think carefully about how and when to raise capital."

"Avoiding common fundraising pitfalls is just as important as raising funds itself. These include raising too much too soon, waiting too long, setting unrealistic goals, structuring overly complex deals (like SAFEs and CLAs), ignoring investor feedback, lacking a clear regulatory path, pricing without a go-to-market strategy, neglecting grant opportunities, and misjudging runway needs. If you strike the right deals with the right capital," added Copelovitz., "You can achieve three key goals: extend your runway, maintain stronger control over your cap table, and de-risk your venture. That’s the triumvirate every startup should aim for."

Shattering Illusions

Michel Habib, Cofounder and Managing General Partner at Alive Israel HealthTech Fund, shared his insights on startup financial planning and investor expectations.

Habib said, "Some entrepreneurs have an illusion they can reach an exit with 51% of their startup. My recommendation to startups is when you form a company, or when you go and raise money, you really have to have full financial planning from start to finish. Meaning, okay, our vision is to reach 2030 with a certain range of success in terms of exits. This is the amount of money that we believe will be needed.

"So the ability to raise money is not only that the technology is good and the quality of the entrepreneurs and their experience, it also goes through the proper planning of the financing strategy of the company, which is not less important, than the product strategy or the business model."

Focus on R&D

Copelovitz asked Peregrine Ventures Venture Partner, Director of Investor Relations, Business Development Tal Carasso about the technology incubator, which it operates with the Israel Innovation Authority.

Carasso said, "In some cases, first time founders have no idea of how to run a company. They have a great idea, they could be engineers or they could be physicians or biologists, but they don't know how to manage, they don't know accounting, they don't know the legal business. We take charge of all this, allowing the founders, the fresh CEOs. to focus only or as much as they can on the R&D process.

Low pricing in Israel

Yael Gruenbaum-Cohen, Partner at aMoon, reflected on investment decision-making in today’s Israeli market.

Gruenbaum-Cohen said, "The prices here are very low. For companies, there are a lot of flat rounds, and a lot of down rounds. So for us as a VC, we saw a lot of deal flow from Israel and very good pricing for companies. It's not a happy situation for Israel, but there were actually a lot of opportunities. So we get about 2,400 companies a year. They go through a screening process. We get the slide decks that you send us, the PowerPoint presentations that you send us. Those are a big deal for us. We go over them very carefully, and we give it a, what we call it a go-no-go. If you get a no-go, we just say thank you, it's not a good fit for us.

Public-Private Partnership

Inbar Blum, Director of Planning, Development and Growth at the Israel Innovation Authority, discussed how the Authority collaborates with private investors to support early-stage startups.

Blum said, "When you apply to get funding, there are auditors that come and check your company. And once you get approved, it’s something big because it says that the Israel Innovation Authority has looked at it and we also look at investors. We see who is on the board. We see investors as something strategic because you need them not only for the money. You need them for the connections. You need them for so much more. It's strategic, so we have, I think, a pretty good relationship also between us."

Relocating to the US

Finally Copelovitz asked Amir Blatt, Founding Partner and CEO Almeda Ventures about when Israeli startups should relocate to the US.

Blatt said, "Somewhere in the area of $1 million sales is the stage where I would like the CEO to relocate, if they're based initially in Israel. By the way, in many cases, we see teams that are hybrid. They start with someone here and someone there. In medical devices usually, they need to relocate in the very late stage where maybe they start the study in the US. It depends obviously on the type of company, but it's somewhere like six years along the way and in biotech, I hope they get acquired before that."

Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on June 9, 2025.

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