Strategy

DDF is a pioneering venture capital fund, created to capitalize on the unique investment opportunity in dementia, a rapidly escalating public health crisis.

About the Dementia Discovery Fund

Leveraging a team of experienced investment professionals, global access to top academic centres, and industry strategic partners, the fund has cultivated unparalleled expertise in the dementia space. Since 2015, DDF-1 has nurtured a robust portfolio of 16 promising companies, over 80% of which have either attracted further investment or engaged in strategic pharma partnerships. In 2023, DDF announced its first investment out of its new fund, DDF-2.

Since its inception, DDF has grown into the leading dementia-focused VC, benefitting from extensive proprietary deal flow and the invaluable insights gained from managing >40 active dementia programs, including 13 at clinical stage. DDF aims to fill the innovation gap left by large pharmaceutical companies withdrawing from internal R&D in favour of external innovation following late clinical-stage failures.

The recent surge in scientific advancements and venture activity in the neurodegeneration field validates DDF’s positioning and its commitment to mitigating the global dementia crisis while maximizing financial returns.

DDF's Investment Strategy

DDF employs a science-driven investment strategy and uses its domain expertise to proactively identify, and invest in, cutting-edge scientific developments, and subsequently, actively manage the portfolio to increase investment success. DDF’s strategy centres on founding new companies or making early-stage investments to guarantee substantial equity positions and exert significant influence. Additionally, DDF actively pursues strategic syndication and partnerships to attract additional resources and collaborative expertise to maximize impact and financial returns. DDF takes a diversified approach and invests in a balanced mix of platforms and multi-asset portfolios in order to spread risk, capture high-return potential, and generate visibility on near- and long-term value inflection points.

Investment areas

DDF invests in a broad spectrum of innovative therapeutics and technologies that have the potential to revolutionize the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. To date, investments have spanned multiple scientific areas of focus, notably, neuroinflammation, genomic instability, synaptic physiology, and proteostasis, as well as distinct modalities, including small molecules, biologics, and gene therapies. DDF also prioritizes precision medicine, focusing on defined patient populations and utilizing biomarker-driven studies to expedite early value creation.

Get in touch!

We invest in talented innovators. We strongly adhere to the view that diversity, including under-represented groups, strongly adds to success. If you are an entrepreneur seeking investment and a partner who can help you to build your business, we would love to hear from you.
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