TechUnited Take 5: Meet Foundation Venture Capital Group, the Go-To Impact Investor for Your LifeSci Startup

Welcome back to TechUnited Take 5, where you’ll meet new members of the community in a fun and personalized way!

Meet Mike Wiley, Vice President at the Foundation Venture Capital Group, where he, along with his colleagues, endeavor to make a positive impact and improve health by investing in early-stage health-related companies. Follow Foundation Venture Capital Group on LinkedIn, and their website and feel free to email Mike at mwiley@njhf.org to connect 1:1!

Tell us more about your company or organization! For those getting to know you for the first time, share what you absolutely want them to know in 2-3 sentences.

We are a Princeton-based impact investor with the mission of supporting start up companies with innovative, marketable, and protectable technologies in health-related domains. We provide seed capital, business and operational support, strategic planning and guidance, and valuable contacts to assist our portfolio companies in achieving critical milestones for commercial success. We work with a select group of affiliate partner institutions throughout New Jersey, including: Hackensack Meridian Health, Kessler Foundation, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Princeton University, Rowan University, Rutgers University and Stevens Institute of Technology.

What are the top reasons you joined TechUnited? How can you help other members, and how can other members help you?

We joined TechUnited because it is a strong contributor to the innovation ecosystem of New Jersey. With the events, the member dashboard, and other content being generated, we see TechUnited as a great platform to help us stay up to date with what’s going on in New Jersey and at our affiliate partner institutions – and also to help share what we do and who we can help.

What new technology are you excited about? And how do you stay innovative in your role?

Any and all health-related technologies! We don’t only support healthcare and the traditional therapeutic or medical device market segments, we are also interested in projects across multiple other domains of health – planetary health (climate, energy, sustainability, etc.) and community health (education, health equity, etc.) – as well. We are especially excited to see the recent increase in AgTech and FoodTech technologies being developed, as a sustainable food source will be critical for a sustainable future. We’re constantly staying innovative – we look for projects at an extremely early stage of development and help them understand what it takes to bring their technology out of the lab.

What is that one piece of advice you would share with other entrepreneurship enthusiasts in the community?

Determine whether your product, service, or technology is actually something that truly solves a significant problem. Your solution to this problem (product, service or technology) should be a MUST have, not just a nice to have for the customers or stakeholders you are targeting.

What’s your go-to conversation starter or #1 fun fact about your company or career?

We have provided over $60MM in funding to support basic research at our affiliate partner institutions!

If you’d like to learn more about Foundation Venture Capital Group and meet other new members of the community, login to the Member Dashboard today!