Former GroPep CEO Ballard launches angel fund

A new business angel network, BioAngels Inc, has been launched in Adelaide by former GroPep CEO John Ballard.

"Our key goal is to establish a group of 20-30 people who both know the bioscience industry well and are prepared to spend a significant amount of time on a regular basis to mentor companies as angel investors," Ballard told delegates at last week's Australian Venture Capital Association lunch in Adelaide.

"We're not at this stage planning a VC fund, but instead each member will make their own independent investment decisions."

Ballard told the AVCAL lunch attendees that while there were 63 VC funds prepared to invest in early-stage biotech in Australia, none of them were located in South Australia, despite the fact that innovative research and development was occurring in the state at a higher-than-expected level, based on SA's population.

He said that the group would meet monthly to learn about potential deals, share experiences on investments in unlisted companies and follow up the progress of angel investments made by members.

In addition to Ballard, others involved in setting up BioAngels include former Medvet Science GM Paul Flavel, BioInnovation SA investor relations manager Andrew Tucker, Stephen Collins from Ernst & Young, Adrian Tembel from Thomson Playford and Conor McKenna.

Ballard said he hoped that the concept of an angel network would spread to other cities, and added that the group had already had discussions with like-minded investors in Brisbane and Melbourne.

"BioAngels groups in these other cities will be totally independent of us here in Adelaide but can be thought of as a series of linked angel clubs which share non-confidential investment information so that angels in one place can choose to invest in distant opportunities," he explained.

The group hopes that the network will encourage local VC investment into biosciences ventures.

Ballard told Australian Biotechnology News that he had received a lot of positive feedback on the network so far.

More information on the BioAngels network will be available at the Bioinnovation SA Oktoberfest event on September 19, and at a question-and-answer session at Ernst and Young on September 24. The first official BioAngels business meeting will be held on October 9.