Addressing our World’s Unmet Healthcare Needs

The mission of the Catalytic Impact Foundation is to accelerate innovations in life sciences and healthcare, funding companies that address unmet medical needs. By employing the discipline of traditional venture capital, we invest philanthropic capital to support companies with transformative, life-sustaining technologies. 

Bridging the Valley of Death

Capital for early-stage companies can be difficult to obtain. There is often a funding gap between grants for research and for-profit investment. Philanthropic capital helps bridge that gap, the “Valley of Death”, helping much-needed innovations move toward commercialization, and to the patients who are in critical need.

Focused on Six Verticals

We focus our investments in areas where the need is great, but funding is weak.

  • Children facing devastating medical needs deserve better and more tolerable treatments, yet most areas of children’s health remain underfunded.

    Learn more about the CIF Children’s Health Fund

  • Suicide is the second-leading cause of death for teens and young adults, ages 10-34 (CDC, 2022). The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the disparities and shortage of resources to address the mental health epidemic.

    Furthermore, there is a lack of FDA-approved drugs for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative illnesses. Most drugs on the market temporarily treat symptoms but do not address the underlying brain changes or alter disease progression.

  • Despite women making up 52% of the U.S. population, investors have long considered women’s health a niche area. CIF focuses on accelerating innovations that address conditions that affect women exclusively, differently or disproportionately.

    Learn more about the CIF’s Women’s Health Initiative

  • More than 30 million people in the U.S. live with a rare disease, however this highly-incentivized space is severely underfunded.

  • The nation’s health inequities are perpetuated by deep-rooted structural issues. Areas of concern include minority health, disparities between urban and rural healthcare resources, and healthcare access.

    We believe that innovation can play an important role in democratizing access to quality healthcare.

  • Elderly Americans are one of the fastest growing demographic groups. By 2040, one in five Americans will be aged 65 or older.

    This age group has disproportionately high healthcare expenditures, fueled by chronic illness management and prescription drugs.

    We support technologies that have the potential to extend the healthspan.

The Need

  • >90%

    of rare diseases have
    no FDA-approved treatment

  • 1%

    of R&D spending goes to women’s health conditions, outside of cancer

  • 6

    new drugs approved to treat pediatric cancer in the last 40 years vs. 160 for adult cancer

  • .0001%

    of health innovations make it
    out of the lab and to the
    bedside of patients

  • 400K

    children are diagnosed with cancer each year worldwide

  • 80%

    of youth who need
    mental health treatment are
    not able to access it

  • 9%

    of high school students
    have attempted suicide

A deeper look into the Foundation

Our Donors Empower Impact

Our donors have a passion for facilitating change and driving impact in health.

Guided by our donor’s specific areas of interest, we identify and invest in early-stage companies that have transformational technologies addressing areas of high unmet healthcare need.

Catalytic Capital

Our funding is catalytic. By investing early and validating the technology and the team, we help attract additional investment. In addition, funding at this critical time in the company’s development helps them to further develop their technology, build their operations, and work toward FDA approvals. We are helping to accelerate the development of these critical innovations for the patients who may not have the time to wait. 

Supporting Women-Led Companies

Women entrepreneurs receive less than 3 percent of venture capital funding, yet multiple studies have shown that their companies produce equal or higher returns than those led by men. We believe that diversity drives innovation, and innovation suffers when 50 percent of the population struggle to access capital. We actively look for, and invest in, women-led companies with transformative technologies addressing unmet healthcare needs.