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Andrew Forrest’s Tattarang launches Tenmile, a $250m venture capital fund for medical technology start-ups

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Adrian LoweThe West Australian
New Tenmile chief executive Dr Steve Burnell with Carina Biotech CEO Dr Deborah Rathjen.
Camera IconNew Tenmile chief executive Dr Steve Burnell with Carina Biotech CEO Dr Deborah Rathjen. Credit: John Nieddu

WA billionaires Andrew and Nicola Forrest are backing a new $250 million Perth-based venture capital fund targeting start-ups in the medical technology sector.

Tenmile has former Roche Group executive Steve Burnell at its helm and aims to boost the number of firms making it to scale — a constant battle for Australian health start-ups with a lack of investors who deeply understand success in the sector is often a long burn.

Funded through their investment vehicle Tattarang, the Forrests want Tenmile to invest in solutions meeting unmet medical needs.

Dr Burnell said while there was some government funds for startups in the incubation phase but “beyond that it is a bit of a cliff they will fall off” because so few know how to develop ideas into a business model or product.

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“That’s where we really think we can play a role,” he told The West Australian.

“Between this sort of ideation stage and the incubation stage and (turning) into the CSLs of the world is this sort of valley of death where most of them die — they can’t raise capital, they can’t loop through all the steps you have to take.

“There’s this long period of fairly high risk investment, it’s not cheap. Venture capital here traditionally has hasn’t really understood that.”

Dr Burnell said many Australian health technology companies had been pushed too quickly into listing, which hurt their ability to raise capital.

Among the fund’s investment portfolio are Perth drug development company Emyria — which Tattarang obtained a $5m stake in last November — and Adelaide-based immunotherapy firm Carina Biotech.

Dr Burnell would not be drawn on any other signings but said more additions to the portfolio were imminent.

“We are West Australian at heart, and so yes, you can be assured that we’ve got our finger on the pulse of stuff that’s going on in WA, including several things right now in our pipeline — but we’re very much going to be looking across Australia for these direct investments,” he said.

He said Tenmile’s key difference to what he called “consumer health funds” was its use of healthcare experts, and planned to add more in Perth and Sydney.

Companies unable to articulate future markets often failed to convince investors — who in turn often were not health care experts.

“(The) founders of Canva are now moving to do something in healthcare and good luck to them, but it’s a very, very different area,” Dr Burnell said.

“You’re essentially investing companies based on their intellectual property, their preclinical data, their regulatory strategy and clinical development plan — those are different things than valuing a tech startup on the number of customers that they’re accruing onto their website.”

While not solely focused on WA investments, Dr Burnell acknowledged the fund would provide a boost to the State’s emerging medtech sector.

“The heart of what we’re trying to build here is the whole sector,” he said. “There’s a couple of companies, it’s starting to get there but WA doesn’t have its CSL yet ... we already have collaborations and work with the medical sector here. We’ll be looking to extend that.”

Mrs Forrest said gender would be a key investment lens, with female-led companies a focus.

“Tenmile is another demonstration of our focus in using capital as a force for good and will apply Tattarang’s responsible investment framework, including backing female-founded and led health businesses,” she said.

Mr Forrest said Tenmile would be able to act fast and confidently without obligations to investors.

“We can help early-stage companies, researchers and entrepreneurs tap into seed funding to help them when they need it most, and then provide follow-on support, which is often unavailable through government or public sector funds,” he said.

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