NextStep Ventures

Transforming Lifetimes through seed-stage venture investing in pediatric-focused companies

NextStep Ventures is a pediatric healthcare impact fund. We invest in companies working on therapies and diagnostics for pediatric diseases where the need is great because patients have poor outcomes and cost of care is high, yet current solutions fail to meet their needs.

Our team’s background is uniquely suited to the diverse demands of this venture, and includes executive experience at companies ranging from seed-stage startups to the Fortune 500, in philanthropy, in academia at leading medical centers and in venture capital. We have a well-curated network for deal sourcing, due diligence, and post-investment venture growth. We are headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, California, with members of our advisory team spanning leading medical research institutes around the US.

More About Us

“The general perception is that children are healthy in our country, so many people are not aware that there are high unmet needs in pediatric care.”

Dr. Kolaleh Eskandanian

Chief Innovation Officer
Children’s National Hospital

Why Pediatrics?

Children make up 24% of the population in the US and represent over $700B in healthcare spend, yet there are many areas of high unmet need. Millions of children in America, including the 20 million with rare diseases, still lack solutions to their medical needs. They either experience poor quality of life or die at a young age.

It is now possible to completely prevent some of these diseases.
Here are the 3 reasons why:

A regulatory shift in federal policy through acts like the Orphan Drug Act, BPCA[1] and PREA[2] is creating incentives for new solutions for diseases that affect children.

Scientific breakthroughs such as gene & cell therapies, technology-driven drug discovery and drug repurposing make it possible to treat previously untreatable diseases that disproportionately affect children.

Trends that represent the convergence of life sciences and technology – such as wearables and digital health applications, the collapse in sequencing costs, the ability to digitize and commercialize biological data, the application of AI & Deep Learning methods in many areas of life sciences including drug discovery – are helping us solve previously intractable problems in healthcare.

How We Aim To Help

NextStep is a seed-stage venture capital fund that invests philanthropic capital in companies that improve the lives of sick children.

Challenge

Only 9-12% of the NIH budget is allocated to pediatric medical research1. Further, the private sector focus on large markets has prevented many important pediatric discoveries from being commercialized.

Opportunity

Addressing the funding gap will bring to market many promising therapies with significant impact on pediatric health.

Areas of Investment Opportunity

We invest in diagnostics, drugs, medical devices, digital health, and other therapies across these major areas of pediatrics

Rare
Disorders

Neurodevelopmental
Disorders

Congenital & Childhood-
Onset Syndromes

NextStep Ventures

NextStep is a seed stage fund, which invests philanthropic capital in underserved areas of child health and fetal-maternal medicine.
NextStep will invest in capital-efficient companies focused in areas of high need, where our investments will allow for meaningful progress on bringing solutions to market.
Investment returns are returned to the fund, where they can be re-invested in future opportunities.





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