Call us: 1.405.235.2305
info@i2E.org
  • Events
  • News
  • Resources
  • Library
  • Love’s Cup
i2Ei2Ei2Ei2E
  • About
  • Entrepreneurship
    • Venture Advisory Services
    • Love’s Entrepreneur’s Cup
  • e3
  • Concept Fund
  • iMCI
  • Portfolio
  • Contact

Oklahoma is getting the hang of the startup economy

    Home News Oklahoma is getting the hang of the startup economy
    NextPrevious

    Oklahoma is getting the hang of the startup economy

    By sarah | News | 0 comment | 15 May, 2018 | 0

    By Scott Meacham
    Copyright © 2018, The Oklahoma Publishing Co.

    Anybody who’s ever heard me talk about building out Oklahoma’s innovation economy has heard me say that capital begets capital and deal flow begets deal flow.

    The challenge is that it takes a predictable continuum of investment capital to build a robust pipeline of startups, and it takes a robust pipeline of startups to attract capital.

    It’s taken 20 years of Sooner grit, but the vision that our Legislature set forth back in the 1980s for diversifying and expanding Oklahoma’s economy with high-growth startups in information technology, biotechnology, and advanced manufacturing is delivering statewide impact in a big way.

    Major exits and deal flow in Oklahoma are leading to increasingly larger investment rounds.

    About 18 months ago, Scott Rollins, CEO and president of Selexys Pharmaceuticals, engineered the $665 million-dollar acquisition of Selexys by Novartis, the second-largest pharmaceutical company in the world. About the same time, WeGoLook, the world’s first gig economy platform for enterprise customers, sold an 85 percent interest for $36 million.

    i2E started investing in Selexys about a decade ago, funding about $800,000 over time. We were also the first institutional investor in WeGoLook.

    The latest news is that Tetherex Pharmaceuticals, a privately held clinical-stage drug development company formed by Rollins in 2014 as a spinout of Selexys, just announced a $50 million series B investment round. Tetherex is developing groundbreaking therapeutics for the treatment of thrombosis, inflammation and cancer.

    About $43 million of that $50 million round, including nearly $1 million of investment from i2E, came from Oklahoma investors. Tetherex’s technology comes from the research of Rodger McEver, MD, while he was a researcher at OU. Now, he serves as vice president of research at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation.

    To build his first company, Alexion, which has grown to a market cap of $26 billion, Rollins had to move the technology from Oklahoma to the East Coast because sufficient funding could not be raised here at that time.

    It’s not like that in Oklahoma any more. Rollins and his longtime business partner, Russell Rother, returned to Oklahoma in 2008 to build Selexys from clinical trials to acquisition. Now, backed by the $50 million of funding from i2E and others, Rollins and the Tetherex team are working on doing it again.

    “I’m an entrepreneur and a drug developer,” said Rollins. “My job is to design and develop drugs that target a clinically important molecule. What we do is take drugs through the critical clinical trials to determine if they have a significant impact on a particular disease. This is my third company and fourth drug.”

    Think about what’s happened in Oklahoma in less than two years. A $665 million exit in biotech and a second exit with WeGoLook. A $50 million investment round in Tetherex, funded primarily by investors in Tulsa and Oklahoma City.

    Add to that another 21 high-quality companies that i2E invested in last year, and we can begin to see what Oklahoma’s future can be.

    Scott Meacham is president and CEO of i2E Inc., a nonprofit corporation that mentors many of the state’s technology-based startup companies. i2E receives state support from the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology and is an integral part of Oklahoma’s Innovation Model. Contact Meacham at i2E_Comments@i2E.org.

    Read the story at newsok.com

     

     

    Scott Meacham, Scott Rollins, Selexys, Tetherex, WeGoLook

    Related Posts

    • OKC pharma firm acquired in deal valued up to $665 million

      By admin | 0 comment

      A global pharmaceutical company will pay up to $665 million for an Oklahoma City research firm that recently completed a large trial of a drug that treats pain among those with sickle cell disease.

    • Oklahoma gains momentum in startup investments, deals

      By sarah | 0 comment

      By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2018, The Oklahoma Publishing Co. The State Science & Technology Institute (SSTI), the national network that serves those involved in technology-based economic development, recently announced a list of the mostRead more

    • Oklahoma startups successful in 2016

      By sarah | 0 comment

      By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2016, The Oklahoma Publishing Co. As 2016 draws to a close, entrepreneurs and early stage investors in Oklahoma are ending the year with big smiles. In the past few weeks,Read more

    • A race against time for building a company

      By sarah | 0 comment

      By Scott Meacham It is hard to start a business — very, very hard. This is true on Main Street, for information technology businesses and in biotech. For all entrepreneurs, building a company is aRead more

    • Diverse companies, boards benefit Oklahoma economy

      By sarah | 0 comment

      By Scott Meacham Recently, I received a phone call about a friend who was raising a fund specifically to invest in women-led companies. Considering the track record of venture capital invested in women-led firms, it’sRead more

    Leave a Comment

    Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    NextPrevious
    i2E-300dpi-Trans-Light
    • Events
    • News
    • Resources
    • Library
    • Love’s Cup

    Oklahoma City Office

    840 Research Parkway, Suite 250
    OKC, OK 73104
    PHONE 405/235-2305
    Click HERE for printable map with directions.

    Tulsa Office

    618 E. Third Street, Suite 1
    Tulsa, OK 74120
    PHONE 918/582-5592
    Click HERE for printable map with directions.
    Copyright 2021 i2E, Inc. | All Rights Reserved
    • About i2E
    • Services
    • Investments
    • Development
      • Love’s Cup
        • Forms
        • High Growth
        • Small Business
        • Timeline
    • Portfolio 3
    • Contact
    i2E