[Interview] 바카라사이트 비타임 Partners Founder and CEO Brian Sung and Managing Director Lee Mina
[by Kang, In Hyo] “We initially began as a consulting firm specializing in pharmaceutical and biotech strategies and subsequently expanded our scope to function as an accelerator (AC) focused on identifying and nurturing biotech startups. Now, we intend to fully support the growth of promising Korean biotechnology and healthcare companies through direct capital investment initiatives (Capital Play)”.
Brian Sung, founder and CEO of Myriad Partners, shared these insights in a recent interview with <THE BIO>. Myriad Partners was selected as the final consignment manager (GP) for the small-scale startup sector in the ‘2025 Mother Fund 1st Regular Subscription Project’ at the end of April. “I believe that our selection as GP reflects a positive evaluation of the investment and nurturing capabilities that Myriad Partners has consistently developed over the years,” Sung stated. “We will remain a steadfast partner for the growth of early-stage companies and will contribute, even if in a small way, to the creation of an innovative startup ecosystem in the biotech and healthcare industry.”
Myriad Partners plans to establish a subsidiary fund with a total value of KRW 7 billion (approximately USD 5 million) by receiving KRW 3 billion from the parent fund and matching it with KRW 4 billion from private sector investments. During the interview, Lee Mina, the representative fund manager of the subsidiary fund and managing director of Myriad Partners, also present that day, said, “We have already secured most of the private investment. Discussions are ongoing to bring additional limited partners (LPs) from large Korean pharmaceutical and biotech companies that are interested in open innovation and strategic synergy with the current portfolio companies.”
◇Laying the foundation for growth of promising domestic 바카라사이트 비타임 firms and broadening global BD and IPO consulting services
Myriad Partners, established in December 2016, is commemorating its eighth anniversary this year. Initially launched as a strategic consulting firm with a focus on the pharmaceutical and biotech sectors, it has provided a range of consulting services, including new drug valuation, business development (BD), and initial public offering (IPO) support. Drawing upon this experience, the company began to actively pursue venture investments in 2021 as a ‘Company Builder AC.’ In December 2021, it was selected as an angel investment partner by the Korea Technology Guarantee Fund, and in September 2022, the company launched its first venture investment fund, the ‘Bio Quantum Leap Fund No. 1.’
Currently managing six funds, 바카라사이트 비타임 Partners is actively investing in around 10 biotechnology and healthcare ventures across the entire growth stage of companies, from planning and startup phases to early growth, expansion, and pre-IPO stages. In March of this year, the firm changed its name from 바카라사이트 비타임 Life Sciences to 바카라사이트 비타임 Partners, reflecting its evolving scope and expanded portfolio.
“Since we expanded our business area to include investments in 2021, there have been some misunderstandings, with people assuming that we are a new drug development company due to our previous mission of ‘life science,’” expressed Brian Sung. “We changed our mission to ‘Myriad Partners’ to clearly define our identity as a strategic partner that supports the growth of biotech and healthcare ventures and pharmaceutical companies.”
“We are not merely a financial investor (FI) that invests capital and seeks returns, but rather we function as a ‘company builder-type accelerator’ that provides tailored support to each company depending on its growth stage,” Sung further commented. “We chose to change our mission to more clearly articulate and reinforce our role as a strategic partner.”
바카라사이트 비타임 Partners began as a strategic advisor and has gradually expanded its capabilities over time. In its early days, the firm specialized in evaluating the value of new drug candidates for pharmaceutical and biotech companies. It later broadened its expertise to include global business development advisory services, such as licensing out (L/O). Today, it has established itself as a comprehensive partner for the pharmaceutical and biotech sectors, offering IPO support for companies preparing for technology-specific listings.
“Since the establishment of the Korea Drug Development Fund (KDDF), we have been virtually the sole provider of valuations (technology value assessments) for hundreds of novel drug candidates supported by the fund,” Sung explained. “During that time, pharmaceutical and biotech companies were seeing tremendous success with technology exports one after another, and there was even a boom in biotech startups, which enabled us to lay the groundwork for the company’s growth.”
“As the demand for overseas licensing expanded, Korean biotech ventures increasingly sought private-sector expertise to accurately assess the value of their technologies and pursue global partnerships based on these assessments,” he further stated. “Projects initiated by private companies have also prioritized overseas commercialization, prompting Myriad Partners to broaden its focus to include global business development (BD) services in response to this trend.”
“From the perspective of biotech companies, it is crucial to demonstrate the superiority and marketability of their technology through ‘technology evaluation,’ and thus, the demand for valuation will only continue to grow in the future,” Sung emphasized. “In particular, analyzing the global economic environment and market trends is becoming increasingly essential.”
“The nature of valuation has evolved considerably in recent years,” Sung remarked. “In the past, valuations were primarily conducted for L/O technology, but as the investment environment has become more challenging, M&A transactions between biotech firms have increased, leading to growing demand for valuations in this context.”
“As large pharmaceutical companies have increased their equity investments in biotech firms, the share of traditional valuation work has relatively decreased,” he further explained. “Valuation is now evolving into a form that is closely tied to the entire growth cycle, encompassing not only valuation itself but also BD and IPO support.”
“Although the specific consulting needs may differ depending on each biotech’s stage of growth, over the past eight years, we have established a solid foundation for steady growth in early and growth-stage biotech companies through valuation-centered consulting work,” he emphasized.
바카라사이트 비타임 Partners is transitioning from its roots in strategic consulting to a company builder-type accelerator (AC) and is now engaging in full-fledged capital play through direct capital investments. This is the first time it has been selected as a mother fund GP, a milestone that is seen as an indicator of its growing external credibility.
“We began to engage in investment activities in earnest after obtaining our AC license in the second half of 2021. Most of our investments have been project-based, including the establishment of ‘Avelos Therapeutics,’ a company we directly planned and launched,” Sung remarked. “We formally commenced fund management by creating our first blind fund-type venture investment association time in 2022.”
“Securing investment resources requires persuading LPs, but the frequent concerns regarding recovery performance have made fundraising a challenging task,” he further added. “Being selected as a mother fund self-fund management company will not only increase our external credibility but also carry significant symbolic importance as a GP.”
◇A bio 바카라사이트 비타임 strategy that expands modalities and targets: from new drugs to regeneration and reversing aging
Director Lee Mina outlined Myriad Partners’ investment strategy in three major stages. She explained that during the seed stage, the focus is on ‘planned startups’ and on evaluating the capabilities of the startup team.
“We focus on novel drug development and treat it almost like a joint venture, prioritizing the depth of the team’s understanding and the strength of the startup team,” Lee emphasized. “We work collaboratively with the startups even before their official establishment, crafting a detailed blueprint and carefully considering the positioning of their technology and its future growth trajectory, which goes beyond the mentorship role of an accelerator.”
At the series stage, they primarily target investments in companies that are in the pre-A and series A rounds. “There are many teams with exceptional technologies, even if they did not emerge from planned startups,” Lee explained. “We carefully evaluate their potential for commercialization and their ability to secure follow-up investment, focusing on unmet needs that are difficult to fully grasp without direct experience in the market.”
“The credibility of the founding team and their ability to communicate effectively with investors are also crucial considerations in our decision-making,” she further added. “For instance, we favor companies like ‘DigmBio,’ which actively engage with investors even before they have any questions and which are open to discussing strategic directions with investors during the course of phase 1 clinical trials.”
“Our pre-IPO stage investments are made through an IPO consulting process to gain a deeper understanding of the company. Once the technological excellence of the company is validated and it is determined that they possess the capability to successfully commercialize their technology, investment opportunities arise, at which point we proceed with the investment review,” Lee stated.
“Our current portfolio is primarily focused on companies engaged in new drug development. However, through our consulting work, we have deepened our understanding of diverse sectors, including medical devices and artificial intelligence (AI) healthcare. As a result, we have recently broadened our investment base to encompass emerging areas aligned with market trends and industry developments,” she further explained.
“Although consulting and investment might appear to be separate roles on the surface, we have found through our on-site experience that combining these two areas enables us to create greater synergy by collaboratively developing strategies and implementing them together,” Lee emphasized.
Lee explained that Myriad Partners’ investment strategy is diversifying in terms of both treatment approaches (modalities) and targeted disease areas. She remarked, “We aim to approach new modalities with greater flexibility. While antibody drugs and antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) remain promising fields, there is a noticeable shift in investment towards new modalities centered on ‘small molecules,’ which offer relatively low development costs and complexity.”
“In terms of disease areas, we aim to broaden the scope of our review to include not only traditional areas like oncology and chronic degenerative diseases but also areas such as regeneration and anti-aging that address disease prevention and overall wellness,” Lee further stated. “Our investment strategy focuses on various technology platforms that have the potential to drive meaningful innovation from a long-term perspective.”
In line with this trend, Myriad Partners is closely monitoring the development of ‘SMDC (Small Molecule Drug Conjugate)’ technology, which is based on small molecule drugs. In fact, ‘SaeroGenBIO,’ a company founded last year, has positioned itself squarely in this field, with Dr. Son Moon-ho, who previously served as Director of the Dong-A Pharmaceutical Research Institute and Director of the New Drug Development Support Center at the Daegu-Gyeongbuk Medical Innovation (DGMIF) Foundation, participating as a co-founder. “SMDC is an emerging technology that has not yet fully entered the market, and there are a range of experimental efforts underway not only in Korea but also overseas,” Lee commented.
◇A strategic venture platform integrating consulting and investment: Pioneering the ‘Korean-style biotech venture AC’ model case
Myriad Partners intends to actively leverage the ‘planned startup’ approach, which involves first identifying promising technology and subsequently forming a team to develop it. “We are consistently sourcing technology through the networks of major universities and TLOs (technology transfer organizations) in Korea,” Lee stated. “There are technologies that have not yet matured to the point of being startup-ready, but if properly refined, they show great potential, and we are continuing to study them.”
“In situations where there is promising technology but no one suitable to lead its commercialization, we are also exploring the formation of a team by pairing the technology with experienced CEOs, CTOs, and CSOs from the industry,” she further noted. “We intend to operate the planned startup model flexibly, ensuring the right people are matched with the right technology.”
“Planned startups follow the ‘American model,’ in which accelerators (ACs) or venture capitalists (VCs) hold significant shares and actively oversee the company’s growth. However, Korea does not yet have an environment comparable to that of the U.S.” Lee explained. Nonetheless, if the institutional environment in Korea becomes more flexible, we will actively pursue this model of planned startups.”
Brian Sung noted that through consulting and exploring various technology fields, he has identified consistent patterns and formulas behind the success of biotech companies. “It is not enough to rely solely on technology to succeed in the biotech industry. Multiple factors, including the capabilities of the startup team, commercialization potential, and marketability, must work together in harmony,” he remarked.
“From an investment perspective, it is critical to understand global technology trends and have a profound grasp of the technology itself, but ultimately, investments must be interpreted through the lens of ‘capital,’” Sung further said. “When assessing VC investment in Korean biotech firms, the key evaluation factors extend beyond technology and the product itself to include the company’s potential to attract follow-up investments. Even if an initial investment is made, if the possibility of securing additional funding is blocked, the company could immediately encounter a crisis, underscoring the need to carefully assess the possibility of follow-up investment.”
Sung concluded by stating that the vision of Myriad Partners remains firmly rooted in its identity of ‘supporting the full-cycle growth of technology-based companies in the biotech and healthcare industries.’ “Our goal is to position ourselves as a convergence strategic venture platform that integrates strategic consulting and direct capital play, serving as a model case of a ‘Korean-style biotech venture AC,’” he said.