About Us

NextStep is a $50M seed-stage pediatrics-focused
healthcare venture fund with impact.

Our thesis is that due to a perfect storm of factors, pediatrics have become a viable investment space. We see a double bottom line opportunity to balance impact with generating significant investment returns. We invest in transformational companies that have been made possible through new breakthroughs in science and technology, including gene & stem cell therapies, multiomics, AI/machine learning, wearables and digital health. We seek investment returns through a portfolio constructed of diagnostics, devices, digital health, drugs and other therapies, which enables some quicker successes while also investing in companies with large exit potential.

Our team at NextStep has the right mix of investment, operational, research, and technical experience needed to identify transformational companies that represent viable businesses. Our team’s technical experience spans pediatrics research, pediatric surgery, bioengineering, drug discovery & drug development, computer science and AI/machine learning. We have extensive experience developing first-in-class solutions in a variety of fields. We have significant operational experience in venture capital, entrepreneurship and early-stage company building.

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, and are supported by a stellar scientific advisory Board, with members of our advisory team spanning leading medical research institutes and successful companies around the 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.

Why Now Is the Right Time for NextStep

Given this perfect storm of factors across science, technology and pediatrics-focused regulation, our team at NextStep believes that the time is right for an investment focus on pediatrics. Pediatrics is overlooked by most venture capital, and therefore, we can be very selective and invest only in the best opportunities. We source companies with favorable risk-to-return profiles because of our unique deal flow and a well-curated network for deal sourcing, due diligence, and accelerated post-investment growth. NextStep makes investments of $100K to $1M in pre-seed and seed-stage rounds of companies that are aligned with our investment thesis.

Federal Government Policy, such as Pediatric Research Equity Act (PREA) and Best Pharmaceuticals For Children Act (BPCA) invent the pharmaceutical industry to perform pediatric studies to improve labeling for patented drug products used in children, gives FDA the authority to require pediatric studies in certain drugs and biological products and makes it possible for the NIH to prioritize therapeutic areas and sponsor clinical trials and other research for off-patent drug products that need further study in 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.

Recent advances in science, including gene and cell therapies, make it possible to treat previously untreatable diseases.

NextStep Ventures

NextStep is a $50M pediatric healthcare seed stage fund, which combines profit with improved quality of life outcomes
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.
We take a “double bottom line” approach to investing, which combines the best of venture capital and philanthropy to generate meaningful returns by catalyzing change in an under-investing, yet highly promising space.





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