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A long-running venture fund at the cutting edge of Australian research, which has provided early financial backing to more than 70 startups including Diraq, Celosia Therapeutics, Ferronova and Aravax, will say goodbye to its longstanding CEO Dr Peter Devine as he steps down from Uniseed at the end of this year.
Devine has been in the role for almost two decades, and before that he was engaged with Uniseed as a consultant and investment director in its proof-of-concept stage, primarily managed by two university tech transfer offices at the time.
In a LinkedIn post, Devine said he was incredibly proud of his time at Uniseed, helping it transform into a leading commercialisation fund manager that now partners with 10 prominent Australian research organisations, as well as Stoic Venture Capital since 2018 and Unisuper since 2022. The latter recently increased its commitment to $100 million.
In a statement given to Business News Australia, the early-stage investment doyen highlighted the group's challenges and achievements over the past 19 years.
"When I took on the CEO role at the start of Uniseed's second fund in 2016, there was an implicit 10-year commitment from our limited partners. These included the Universities of Queensland, NSW, and Melbourne, as well as Westscheme, Western Australia's largest non-government super fund at the time," he said.
"Things started well. QRxPharma was listed on the ASX in 2007, marking the largest biotech IPO at the time with $50 million raised on a $100 million valuation. A year later, we sold Fultec to Bourns Semiconductor.
"However, the 2008 Global Financial Crisis (GFC) drastically changed the investment landscape."
He said that the GFC meant that "little to no" external capital was available, apart from some government programs like the IIFF which helped keep companies afloat.
"Despite this, we lost a couple of our larger companies with significant capital needs, Xerocoat and Continara, and the fund went into a loss position," he said.
"Many people lost faith in the Uniseed idea, and the management team faced considerable criticism. However, we persevered and found success in 2014 and 2015 with the Fibrotech, Spinifex, and Hatchtech deals, which turned the fund around."
Fibrotech, a biopharma company that developed a new class of drugs for the treatment of fibrosis, was acquired by Shire Plc in 2014 for US$557 million. Spinifex, a developer of pain drugs, was sold to Novartis International the next year for US$700 million, and headlice treatment company Hatchtech was sold to Dr Reddy's Labs in a US$200 million deal.
"Building on these successes, I decided it was time to raise the next fund (Fund-3). We brought in the University of Sydney and CSIRO, with the five research partners committing $70 million," Devine said.
"This again locked me in for another 10 years. During this period, we partnered with Stoic VC, further expanded the fund with five new universities, and secured what is now a $100 million commitment from UniSuper, bringing our total under management to approximately $200 million.
"We've had more successes in this fund, including Kinoxis Therapeutics Pty Ltd's collaboration and licensing deal with Boehringer Ingelheim, Aurtra (acquired by Schneider Electric), and Forcite's sale to GoPro."
Other successful exits at Uniseed include adaptive e-learning platform SmartSparrow which was sold to Pearson in 2019, the intellectual property of plastics additive TenasiTech which was sold to RTP Co in 2020, and power asset monitoring tech Aurtra which was sold to Schneider Electric in 2022.
"I am incredibly indebted to the brilliant team that supported us throughout this time," Devine said.
"I particularly want to acknowledge John Kurek, who has been with us since the start of Fund-2 and is one of the most knowledgeable individuals in Australia regarding drug development."
The current portfolio of 26 companies also includes Perkii, Cardihab, Exonate, Morse Micro and BioScout, among others.
"What I will cherish most from my time at Uniseed are the amazing people I've had the privilege to meet and work with: the Uniseed team, the employees and directors of our investee companies, brilliant researchers and inventors, our co-investors, the tech transfer staff and our service providers," the outgoing CEO added in his LinkedIn post.
"I am indebted to you all for making Uniseed a success and contributing to the achievements highlighted above, and hope to remain involved in the industry and stay in touch with all of you."
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