The Brief

The Brief: Biotech VC invests in treatments for neglected diseases

ImpactAlpha · May 8, 2025

Greetings Agents of Impact!

In today’s Brief:

  • Investing in neglected diseases 
  • Microsoft’s US forest foray 
  • Singapore’s impact investment marketplace
  • Asia’s ‘AI just transition’

With medical research funding in peril, one biotech VC firm pushes innovation forward. The Trump administration’s plans to decimate funding for medical and scientific research and disease prevention have sent shockwaves through the global scientific community. Industry players, philanthropists and private investors know the pressure is on to put more capital to work in the life sciences sector. “It is galvanizing Big Pharma, nonprofits, family offices, venture capital firms – all of us – to figure out how we navigate this current environment,” says Glenn Rockman of Adjuvant Capital, a venture fund that backs biotech companies working on neglected diseases. “The goal is to continue supporting as much research as possible to signal confidence about the momentum behind today’s best scientific and engineering concepts.” The US government is by far the biggest backer of medical and health research in the world. The administration’s plan, if approved, would cut $18 billion, or 40%, from the budget of National Institutes of Health, and halve funding for Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Tens of billions of dollars in annual federal research and grant funding isn’t a gap the private sector or even other countries could readily step up to fill. “Decades of progress” are on the line, Thomas Frieden, former head of the CDC, told The New York Times. 

  • Neglected diseases. Rockman and former Gates Foundation health investor Jenny Yip co-founded Adjuvant Capital in 2019 to invest in biotech companies developing treatments and vaccines for neglected infectious diseases that threaten women and children in vulnerable communities. The firm’s first fund has committed $300 million in late-stage treatments for rabies, yellow fever, group B streptococcus, chikungunya and even Covid-19. Adjuvant deploys an arsenal of tools to ensure investors and companies can make the financials work. Rockman and Yip set up Adjuvant with a $75 million program-related investment from the Gates Foundation and a preferential return-acceleration feature to attract pharmaceutical giants Merck and Novartis and other investors. With its portfolio companies, it leverages mechanisms like manufacturing volume guarantees and procurement contracts to ensure that companies will be able to sell their treatments at the volumes they need to, says Rockman. “There are many creative ways that you can earn a return that most VCs aren’t familiar with.”
  • Plugging gaps. Adjuvant has 19 investments in its portfolio, and the firm is reportedly raising its second fund, with a target of $200 million to $300 million. Rockman declined to comment on whether the firm was fundraising. He noted that Adjuvant’s work is taking on new urgency, even in the wealthy markets where the bulk of its portfolio companies conduct their research and trials, “considering the emerging risks of diseases like mpox, Zika, malaria, measles and others in high-income markets like Canada, the US and Europe.” If Trump’s research cuts go through, innovative financing mechanisms for critical health issues will be essential to global public health progress. Fortunately, says Rockman, “there is a very specific and prominent universe of investors that is committed to the concept of a double-bottom-line investment thesis” in public health. “They’ve seen ups and downs in global health over the past three decades. Plugging gaps is something they’re comfortable with.”
  • Keep reading, “With medical research funding in peril, one biotech VC firm pushes innovation forward,” by Jessica Pothering on ImpactAlpha.

Dealflow: Low-Carbon Transition

Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund backs climate-smart forestry specialist EFM. Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund made its first US investment in forestry. The billion-dollar fund invested in EFM, a Portland-based firm that acquires forestland and implements climate-smart practices to boost carbon storage, biodiversity and water and soil quality, while engaging with local communities. “Our collaboration with EFM is a significant step towards unlocking the value of the latest scientific advancements in improved forest management as a carbon removal pathway,” said Microsoft’s Brian Marrs. Microsoft’s investment will go to EFM’s fourth fund, which is looking to raise $300 million to acquire forests in the Western US. 

  • Nature-based offsets. EFM’s partnership with Microsoft includes an offtake agreement to deliver up to 700,000 carbon removal credits over 10 years. EFM expects to generate the credits from management of a forest on Washington state’s Olympic Peninsula. At the end of March, EFM announced an offtake agreement with Meta to deliver 676,000 nature-based carbon credits from the same Olympic Peninsula forest by 2035. Meta made the investment through its billion-dollar Natural Capital Fund, managed by Climate Asset Management.
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Singapore’s Co-Axis secures investment for climate and health solutions in Asia. The Singapore-based impact investment marketplace links investors such as family offices, corporations and foundations with early-stage businesses and blended finance projects advancing the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The platform landed S$1.3 million (US$925,000), including $250,000 Singapore dollars from the Richardson Family to be disbursed over two years. Temasek Trust’s Catalytic Capital for Climate and Health, or C3H, contributed S$1 million to co-fund solutions at the nexus of climate and health opportunities with Co-Axis. “By harnessing Co-Axis and a collaborative ecosystem, we can accelerate capital deployment and scale impact where it matters most,” said C3H’s Ryan Tan. 

  • Impact partnerships. Temasek Trust, DBS Foundation, and UBS Optimus Foundation launched Co-Axis last year at the Philanthropy Asia Summit in Singapore, billing it as “the first digital catalytic capital marketplace.” The platform has more than 100 investment opportunities from 40 countries that have been sourced from the Temasek Trust network. Co-Axis partnered with California-based digital wealth management company Arta Finance last year to provide access to debt and equity investments on the Co-Axis platform, with a goal of unlocking $30 million over two years. Eight other projects were specifically curated for Arta, including Coral Vita to revive coral reefs in the Bahamas, and Wateroam, which provides water filters for rural and disaster-stricken communities in Singapore. 

CFG Bank purchases $3 million of Arctaris impact notes for community revitalization in Baltimore. Boston-based Arctaris Impact Investors issues “impact notes” to accredited and institutional investors to raise capital for its investment initiatives in Maryland, Ohio, Colorado and other parts of the US. The place-based strategies, which combine first-loss capital from local community foundations, governments and other philanthropic partners with private equity and debt capital, invest in affordable and workforce housing, broadband infrastructure, and operating businesses that create good jobs and community wellbeing. A $3 million investment from CFG will allow Arctaris to expand its Baltimore strategy, launched in 2016 with funding from Baltimore’s Abell Foundation and Neighborhood Impact Investment Fund. “This partnership expands our efforts to improve lives throughout Baltimore,” said Erik Howard of CFG, Baltimore’s largest community bank. CFG purchased the impact notes as part of its Community Reinvestment Act requirements. 

  • Community impact. Arctaris has invested roughly $50 million in Baltimore since 2016, including a hotel-to-residential workforce housing project located in downtown Baltimore (see, “Investors look for Opportunity Zones to get an extension and a fresh dose of tax-advantaged capital”). It has also backed Up to Date Laundry, a laundry company that services local healthcare providers such as the University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins University, to create jobs in East Baltimore. Arctaris’ approach, the firm’s Jonathan Towers said, “starts by considering the needs of the community and incorporates investments in local businesses and infrastructure as well as addressing housing needs.”
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Dealflow overflow. Investment news crossing our desks:

  • UK-based Breathe Battery Technologies raised a $21 million Series B round led by Kinnevik Online AB for its software that helps automakers keep up to speed on battery tech. Lowercarbon Capital and Volvo Cars Tech Fund also invested. (TechCrunch)
  • Canada’s Exterra Carbon Solutions scored C$20 million (US$14.6 million) in Series A funding, co-led by Clean Energy Ventures and BDC Capital, to convert asbestos waste into magnesium oxide, nickel, silica and other critical minerals. (Exterra)
  • FinDev Canada committed $15 million to EcoEnterprises’ fourth fund, which is seeking up to $150 million to invest in small and mid-sized enterprises in Latin America. (FinDev Canada)
  • Pakistani startup MedIQ, whose digital platform connects healthcare providers, patients and insurers, raised $6 million in a Series A round led by Rasmal Ventures and Joa Capital to expand in the Middle East. (MHN)

Signals: Impact Tech

Financing an ‘AI just transition’ for Asia’s workforce. Artificial intelligence is poised to transform industries and jobs, disrupting old ways of doing things and creating new opportunities. In the Asia-Pacific region, which is rapidly adopting the technology, that brings challenges for the region’s two billion workers. In particular, women, informal workers and migrants are overrepresented in the roles most likely to be replaced by AI, including clerical jobs, customer support, administrative roles, delivery staff, warehouse workers and others. “Building capabilities in generative AI, machine learning, and natural language processing can help workers remain relevant in this evolving landscape,” according to a new report by the Asia Venture Philanthropy Network, a social impact network in Asia. The organization calls for an “AI just transition” to pave the way. 

  • AI upskilling. AVPN, alongside Google and the Asian Development Bank, launched the Asia-Pacific focused AI Opportunity Fund last year to equip the region’s workforce with AI tools and know-how. The $15 million, three-year program funds nonprofits, social enterprises and workforce associations close to populations most likely to be impacted by the AI transition, including people with disabilities. The fund has committed cash grants to 49 organisations including Singapore’s TagTeam, which equips migrants and domestic workers with AI-related skills to help them land jobs when they return home; Japan’s Baobab, which provides AI and data tagging training for refugees and people with disabilities; and India’s JAIS, an organization that helps female and rural business owners digitize their operations.
  • Enabling small businesses. Google put up an additional $10 million to launch a track in partnership with the ASEAN Foundation to focus on AI and micro, small and medium-sized entrepreneurs. Last year, social media giant Meta and Indian tech advocacy nonprofit National Association of Software and Services Companies launched the AI Enablement for small businesses program to help small Indian businesses adopt the technology.
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Agents of Impact: Follow the Talent

Financial Resilience Institute adds Katie Sutter, formerly with ScriptString.AI, as a business development, communications and impact consultant… SJF Ventures promotes Josef Barrick to principal… Swedfund International appoints Olena Smyrnova, previously with CrossBoundary Group, as director and head of Ukraine.

Cypress Creek Renewables is looking for an investment analytics senior associate… Echoing Green is recruiting a communications associate and an events and engagement associate… William Blair has an opening for a global ESG and sustainability analyst… At this year’s US SIF Forum in Washington, DC, US SIF will have an advisor-specific track for financial advisors and wealth managers. The track will include sessions including ESG backlash and the rise of AI in sustainable investing.

👉 View (or post) impact investing jobs on ImpactAlpha’s Career Hub.

Thank you for your impact!

– May 8, 2025