Sixth Element Capital is a new fund management business, which has been established to identify investment gaps initially in healthcare markets and to implement novel solutions to bring finance and innovation together. In drug development, the challenge of translating academic opportunities into commercial products has become more acute in recent years. A real funding gap has emerged at the interface between academia and industry as the number of venture investors active in the space has diminished. The Partners at Sixth Element Capital are experienced in funding and managing innovative science in order to bring new products to the market and create long term value and benefit to stakeholders. By working in partnership with the funders of fundamental research and with providers of finance who remain active in the space, Sixth Element Capital intends to construct new partnerships which will accelerate the flow of projects from the research bench to patients and eventual commercial exploitation. The first fund managed by Sixth Element Capital is the £50m CRT Pioneer Fund.Sixth Element Capital LLP is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.

I was a Founding Partner in DFJEsprit when it was created through a merger between Prelude Ventures, one of the oldest European early stage technology VCs and the private equity team from Cazenove.

I was a partner at Prelude Ventures for 8 years making investments in early stage biotechnology and medical technology companies. I made investments in companies such as DNA Research Innovations, Oxford Immunotec, Kiadis Pharmaceuticals.

I was the third hire at CRT (whilst I was there it was called CRCT) working on the commercial exploitation of intellectual property created by CRUK funded scientists. This was through establishing licensing or collaborative arrangements with pharma or biotech companies or starting up companies. I was part of the team that licensed Temodal to Schering Plough.