INVESTMENT STRATEGY

Toucan Capital specializes in seed and early stage investments in novel, emerging technologies. We are particularly interested in working with inventors, researchers, scientists, and entrepreneurs at the very beginning of their efforts to commercialize an invention or technology. We look for emerging technologies with broad potential to create multiple products and multiple ways to win.

We typically invest in a company's first institutional financing, usually acting as the lead investor. We make initial investments of $100,000 to $5 million, and participate in follow-on financing rounds thereafter. We also participate in select later stage investments, sometimes as part of a larger investment syndicate. We invest in companies anywhere in the United States, and currently have portfolio companies on both the east and west coasts.

Toucan Capital has a broad investment focus, and the mix of sectors evolves continuously, reflecting changing market conditions and windows of opportunity. In the current fund, life science (including medical devices) is the primary sector focus, and will comprise about 75% of the total investments by this fund. Nanotechnology and other advanced technologies are a secondary focus, and will comprise about 25%. Our primary areas of interest currently are as follows:

Life Sciences:
Our life science investments are focused on therapeutics and medical devices. We particularly seek novel classes of therapeutics and new platform technologies. We generally avoid companies with limited market potential, such as diagnostics and tools-based companies, and companies involved in healthcare services. Current priorities include:

  • Cell therapies and tissue engineering
  • Biologics
  • Immunotherapies
  • Medical devices


Advanced Technologies:
Our advanced technologies investments are focused primarily on emerging nanotechnologies. We look at other advanced technologies on a limited, opportunistic basis. We typically avoid enterprise software, and other general software. We also avoid automotive and other large or stationary applications of fuel cells. Current focus areas include:

  • Nanotechnologies (advanced materials, sensors, other)
  • Fuel cells and advanced batteries for mobile applications
  • Information security, integrity assurance, and privacy