Content area
Full Text
A Carmel startup that hopes to research drug components here and make them in China has just raised $12 million in venture capital - despite the recession and a deep freeze in financial markets.
The founder of 2-year-old Waterstone Pharmaceuticals Inc. is Chinese native Faming Zhang, 44, a former Eli Lilly and Co. executive and Indiana University professor who already leads another fast-growing biotech startup, Santa Clara, Calif.- based Crown Bioscience Inc.
San Francisco-based venture firm Burrill and Co., an affiliate of BioCrossroads' Indiana Future Fund I, led the Waterstone investment. The other backer was Cupertino, Calif.-based Acorn Campus Ventures, which also put money in Crown.
Venture capitalists universally cite management talent as the most important factor in a startup's success. Acorn was eager to make another bet on Zhang, said W. Sandy Chau, a partner with the venture firm.
"People like Dr. Zhang don't come by every day. He has a rare combination of scientific excellence and the ability to focus on the development of technology," he said.
"At the same time, he's a marvelous entrepreneur with significant business instincts. On top of both is really somebody with confidence in himself and willingness to take risks."
Waterstone and Crown share the same lineage. In 2006, Zhang used his life savings to found their precursor, Kinasia BioPharmaceuticals Inc. A year later, Acorn combined Kinasia's biology operations into Crown, another Silicon Valley startup in its portfolio with a Chinese business plan.
Zhang remained president of the combined firm, which offers preclinical contract research services, such as animal testing, for big pharmaceutical companies. It now has 195 employees and $2.5 million in annual revenue.
Waterstone isn't far behind. Zhang reorganized Kinasia's remaining chemistry operations to form Waterstone. The firm - which is lowering big pharma's cost of outsourced production - now has 17 employees and $1 million in annual revenue.
Global innovation
Innovation increasingly occurs across the globe, and Zhang's personal story is a microcosm of...