Colorcon
, the Harleysville-based supplier of pharmaceutical excipients and services, is throwing its hat into the business of funding startups, writes Connie Loizos for the Tech Crunch.
The 58-year-old company has decided to invest $50 million into startups by outsourcing its venture operations to Touchdown Ventures.
The growing San Francisco-based firm already helps manage the corporate venture activities of a dozen other companies, including Kellogg’s and 21st Century Fox.
The goal is for Touchdown to use its relationship with these companies and venture capitalists to bring deals to Colorcon that it might want to fund.
“We have other healthcare relationships,” said Touchdown Ventures CEO David Horowitz. “We know how to drum up deal flow. We have relationships with thousands of VCs and we speak at conferences and we do things that are specific to this industry.”
Next, Colorcon’s CEO, Martti Hedman, CFO Dave Graeber, and head of corporate development, Pankaj Rege, will decide which startups to consider.
The company wants to start with commitments of between $1.5 million and $3 million per startup and plans to focus on startups across the manufacturing, supply chain, and delivery of pharmaceutical products and services.
Read more about Colorcon at the Tech Crunch by clicking here.
