The investment stars have often been those who understand how to unlock value from combining ideas and syndicates across borders and industries.
Judith Li, a partner at Lilly Asia Ventures, a regional corporate venture capital (CVC) unit set up in 2008 by a pharmaceutical company in the region and now with three funds sponsored by US-listed drugs group Eli Lilly, has already shown how this can work.
She said: “In Fund III, we are pioneering a few innovative cross-border deal structures that can help leverage each geography’s unique strengths.
“Using these structures, we will be able to bring in some truly cutting-edge technologies into the China market – something that has never happened before. Several of our investments have already increased significantly in value, indicating the potential that can be unlocked.
“I think there could be an era of better cross-industry collaboration coming. Healthcare has always been overly siloed and strong syndicates of CVC could help bridge leading corporations across different sub-industries. Particularly in Asia, having an investment from and being affiliated with a strong multinational brand is attractive to young companies. Our Lilly connection is a powerful platform in securing deals and providing post-investment value-add.”
Li sits on the board of US-based Just Biotherapeutics and Veritas Genetics, Taiwan-based CVie Therapeutics, a subsidiary of Lee’s Pharmaceutical, and US and China-based Crown Bioscience.
Naturally, it is hard work to manage the distances involved. Li said her challenge was “staying afloat among three time zones, and fighting the perpetual jet lag”.
Travel had been less intensive at her former role for two years at Boston-based Partners Healthcare, which followed her BA in neurobiology from Harvard University and MBA at the business school there and then work at management consultants McKinsey.
Li’s Lily Asia deals, however, are just an eighth of the group’s 32 portfolio companies, for the team headed by managing partner and star investor, Fei Chen.
Darren Carroll, now senior vice-president of corporate business development at Eli Lilly who had originally started the global corporate venturing programme back in 2005 and earlier developed the open innovation market in physical sciences through spinning out InnoCentive, had recommended them both for the Rising Stars award. He said: “They [Li and Chen] have been very active and I expect them to remain so.”
Li concurred. She her ambition was: “To continue building solid companies in healthcare, which by its nature will always be a pillar industry in any economy. Particularly in China, there are still so many white spaces where good global products are not widely available.”