Minneapolis-based consulting firm Pioneer Management Consulting has established a new venture firm called Pioneer Ventures Group.
Pioneer’s new investment arm will invest in companies that research cures for rare and life-threatening paediatric brain tumours, medically known as diffused intrinsic pontine gliomas containing H3K27 and EFGR variants.
Pioneer Ventures Group completed its first investment in immunotherapies developer OX2 Therapeutics. The fund will later expand to invest in biotech.
“We’ve been working to start a venture arm for more than five years now,” said Brian Westerhaus, Pioneer’s founder and co-owner, in a press statement. “We chose to support DIPG research in honor of Molly Koenen’s (partner and co-owner of Pioneer) brother, Timothy Orth, and niece, Josephine (Zoey) Orth, who both lost their lives to DIPG at the ages of 18 and 3.”