INVESTING IN BREAKTHROUGH TECHNOLOGIES Echo Investment Capital founding partner Christian Kanady sees OKC as a future global leader in biomanufacturing Editor’s note: Christian Kanady is an entrepreneur and investor with almost 20 years of experience deploying over $1.2 billion in capital across industries. He is the founding partner of Echo Investment Capital, a multi-disciplinary investment firm that is funding innovation in energy, media, life sciences, real estate, national security, and healthcare. An Oklahoma City native, Kanady believes in the unique advantages of marrying overlooked Midwestern assets with world-class talent and sophisticated capital to deliver returns for both investors and communities. Kanady founded Echo Energy in 2010 and built it over a decade into one of the top five largest privately held mineral owners in the United States. He took the time to answer our questions about Echo Investment Capital and its investment philosophy:
Q&A w
CHRISTIAN KANADY
WHAT PROMPTED YOU TO CREATE THIS INVESTMENT COMPANY IN OKC AND WHERE ARE YOU SEEKING LIFE SCIENCES CANDIDATES FOR INVESTMENT? Having grown up here, I’ve always known that Oklahoma City was a beautiful city full of innovative, hard-working people — a city that had been under-appreciated for far too long. In recent years, OKC has been on quite an upward trajectory, and we wanted to harness that spirit and reinvest in opportunities right here at home. Oklahoma City is known as a power player in the oil and gas industry because we are both a community of pioneers and we are also extremely resourceful and naturally optimize for the best use of our assets. This is a perfect combination for a biomanufacturing hub since it marries breakthrough technology with processdriven iteration. We think OKC could be a global leader in this space.
WHAT TYPE OF BIOTECH OR LIFE SCIENCE VENTURES DOES ECHO TARGET FOR INVESTMENTS? Echo will invest in early-stage companies, and typically we find these companies in Boston, San Francisco, New York and other top-decile research centers on the coasts. We are interested in therapeutics, diagnostics, devices, and healthcare tech. We look for companies with a breakthrough technology and a world-class team and then help these companies by connecting them with the bio-infrastructure Echo is creating in OKC. Our goal is to deliver this infrastructure to our portfolio companies in a way that removes their manufacturing pinch points while also lowering development and commercial costs. We believe this not only provides a competitive advantage to our companies that helps de-risk their business model, but also differentiates Echo as a premier investment partner in an otherwise crowded life sciences national marketplace.
WHAT INVESTMENTS HAS IT MADE IN THE LIFE SCIENCE SPACE TO DATE, AS WELL AS OTHER INVESTMENTS? > RESILIENCE creates the processes and platforms that will allow scientists to make their novel therapies quickly, safely and at scale. Collaborating with leaders in academia, biopharma, and governments, they are working to improve the way complex medicines are made, to introduce entirely new definitions of “flexibility” and “adaptive,” and to make it possible for more patients around the world to get the medicines they need. > LUNA is a platform that supports a twosided marketplace that connects certified physical therapists with patients to provide on-demand, in-person, at-home delivery of physical therapy services. Since the majority of physical therapy cases do not require in-clinic facilities or large machinery for treatment, Luna’s model of care supports over 85% of outpatient physical therapy cases. Rehabilitation at home eliminates the need for outpatient facilities and leverages available space of the patient’s home, gym, or office as a site of care while also eliminating leakage from health systems. Founder used to work at Palantir and 8VC is a major investor. > DEKA BIOSCIENCES is a preclinical stage biotech company focused on developing their patented combinatory platform known as Diakines™. This platform has the capability to harness the power of cytokine therapy for treating patients with cancer and inflammatory disease. The initial application for this platform is to develop precision medicines for solid tumors, which has been a long-time goal of cancer therapy developers." Leaps by Bayer is the lead investor and Echo has a seat on the board.
> WHEELER BIO is a Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO) located in Oklahoma City focused on developing platform antibody manufacturing processes to serve small, venture-backed drug development companies. After the antibody platform is launched, they’ll continue launching additional processes for common biologic formats, such as bispecifics, viral vectors, plasmid DNA (pDNA) and cell therapies. Wheeler has a unique business model that integrates with drug discovery companies and aligns everyday business operations with priorities of the customer. This ensures a robust client pipeline, superior customer service, lower costs, and royalty returns on key products. Echo and their JV partner, Alloy Therapeutics led the initial funding of the seed round. > ZORION MEDICAL is an innovative platform technology preclinical stage company that develops fully absorbable medical stents. This technology is based on novel bio-alloy materials and a patented design that provides performance characteristics of permanent devices but are engineered to degrade years sooner than the standard-of-care devices.
HOW ARE YOU CONNECTING WITH ENTREPRENEURS/ VENTURES SEEKING INVESTMENT CAPITAL? We have built a national network of partners and advisors alongside our partnership with the Oklahoma institutions. Our partnerships represent top academic and clinical institutions such as the Mayo Clinic, Purdue University, Georgia Tech, and toptier venture capital firms like 8VC and Vast Ventures. Through our network and the team’s sourcing efforts, we have generated unparalleled deal-flow comprised of topnotch companies all over the US in the life sciences sector.
WHAT EXPERTISE DOES ECHO BRING TO THE VENTURES IN WHICH IT INVESTS, IN ADDITION TO THE CAPITAL IT BRINGS TO THE DEAL? Echo has a proven track record of investing with over $1bn managed to date. The historical success of our mineral portfolio and the lessons learned of how well-run businesses succeed have positioned our team to support companies in early-stage growth. We are experienced in identifying 12
i&E
BIO Edition 2022
market opportunities, assembling teams around the opportunities and then growing them to scale. We bring this experience of building businesses to our portfolio companies like Wheeler Bio in biomanufacturing, Zeno Technologies in energy, and Prairie Surf Studios in entertainment.
WHERE DOES ECHO SEE THE BIOSCIENCE SPACE IN OKLAHOMA CITY IN 10 YEARS AND WHAT IS IT GOING TO TAKE TO GET THERE? OKC is the next great American city and the next frontier for disruption and growth. In 10 years, we’ll have experienced an immense increase in partnerships and collaborations, resulting in our city being a mecca for leaders in the life sciences industry, among others. We hope to see a massive influx of bio talent and incubations thriving in the OKC area as more capital gets put to work and the sector grows. There is a world where OKC can be mentioned in the same sentence as places like Boston and the Research Triangle in North Carolina.
WHAT ELSE DO YOU WANT US TO KNOW? While Oklahoma has long been known for all it has to offer in oil and gas, it’s quickly establishing itself as a powerhouse in other industries too. It’s one of the nation’s lowest-cost states, making OKC an ideal place for investors and top talent. It’s a future-looking, inflation-protected national hub that’s drawing talent from coastal megacities. That’s why Echo finds it so important to invest into other industries in addition to our staple oil and gas industry. That’s why we’ve invested in startups ranging from life science to entertainment. We want to build an entire thriving ecosystem that will make our home an attractive place to invest, to work, and to live.
www.echoinvestmentcapital.com
BIO Edition 2022
i&E
13