Judith Li has been a partner at Lilly Asia Ventures (LAV), a regional corporate venture capital (CVC) unit set up in 2008 by US-based pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly, since 2013 and joined the board of the Hong Kong Venture Capital and Private Equity Association in September 2017 as a non-executive director in a reflection of her importance to the local and international ecosystem.
However, the role for the trade body is fitted in between new board seats at US-based portfolio companies Gritstone Oncology, a personalised cancer immunotherapy company, after its $92.7m series B round in September 2017 and E-scape Bio, which is focused on drugs to treat Alzheimer’s disease and raised $63m two months earlier. She was already on seven other boards, split between the US and Asia.
Gritstone Oncology went public in a $100m initial public offering (IPO) in October 2018 floating at the top of its range. Other exits of the unit include immuno-neurology therapy developer Alector and immuno-oncology drug developer NextCure’s IPOs, both of which floated in the middle of their range, respectively in February and May 2019.
LAV most recently raised $40m in capital from public pension fund San Francisco City & County Employees’ Retirement System in February 2019 for a new vehicle dubbed LAV Biosciences Fund V. It is the unit’s fifth biosciences fund which was launched in January 2019 with a $750m target size.
The fund had already collected an initial $100m commitment from US retirement fund manager Los Angeles County Employees’ Retirement Association the month before. As with its prior funds, it will focus on the healthcare and life sciences sectors.
LAV concentrates on life sciences and healthcare technology developers and specialises in areas such as biopharmaceuticals, human therapeutics, medical devices and diagnostics. The unit is stage agnostic and targets Asia-based companies. It has also started to include US-located deals with market potential in China.
Li had spent two years at US-based healthcare system operator Partners HealthCare, which followed her bachelor’s degree in neurobiology from Harvard University and MBA at the business school there and a senior business analyst role at management consultant McKinsey.
