Propel Bio Partners
11620 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 350, Los Angeles, CA, 90025, United States
Overview
Propel Bio Partners is a new private equity firm targeting high-potential business in the biosciences space. The firm was established during March 2022 by Dr. Leen Kawas and Richard Kayne. Dr. Kawas and Kayne established Propel Bio Partners with the mission to help biosciences businesses that have disruptive technologies further develop those technologies. The firm is especially interested in businesses that are ready to pursue clinical trials or regulatory approval, although promising businesses at other stages might also be considered. When Propel Bio Partners invests in a business, the equity firm will provide both capital and supportive guidance. Starting with Dr. Kawas and Kayne, the firm’s leadership team is a veritable who’s who of the biosciences field. Dr. Leen Kawas comes to the investment firm from Athira Pharma, of which she was both Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer. At the pharmaceutical company, Dr. Kawas oversaw everything from drug discovery and clinical trials, to operations and financing. She has a doctoral degree in medical research. Richard Kayne has sustained a long career in private equity and venture capital, having established Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors in 1984. The Kayne Anderson firm grew to have billions under management. Richard Kayne has since been personally involved in several promising biosciences startups. A third member of Propel Bio Partners’ leadership team is Dr. Dasom Yoo, whose expertise is in regenerative medicine and stem cells. Dr. Yoo has previously conducted research at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. She is joining the private equity firm as a Senior Advisor. The trio is complemented by a board room that’s full of leaders from some of the top biosciences companies and high-level government agencies. These advisors have specialized expertise in many areas of research, medicine and business, and it’s Propel Bio Partners’ vision that companies the firm invests in will have access to board members when expertise is needed. Propel Bio Partners maintains offices in Los Angeles, California.
- Total investments
- 1
- Lead investments
- 1
- Investments · 12mo
- 0
- Active investors
- 1
Investment portfolio
- Persephone Biosciences
Led · Seed · Jul 2022
Persephone collects and sequences stool samples to catalog human gut microbes, trains machine-learning models on that data combined with health records, and identifies high-value “superhero” strains. Its core product path includes a consumer probiotic supplement derived from modern human microbiota and therapeutics that could augment immunotherapy. In the near term the company plans a pediatric-targeted, shelf-stable liquid probiotic and a nationwide infant study in partnership with an unnamed infant-health partner. In parallel it is pursuing clinical applications in oncology, aiming to enter the clinic for lung cancer by 2024 and exploring broader indications such as IBS and inflammation. Persephone has collaborations with Ginkgo Bioworks and a large ARGONAUT study with Johnson & Johnson on the gut-immune axis. The company raised a $15M seed round to scale its infrastructure and research and previously got initial funding through Y Combinator in 2018 to build sample-collection systems.
Team
Leen Kawas
Co-Founder and Managing Partner
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