Rapha Capital BioVentures Fund I Launches DELIVER Therapeutics Inc. with $3 Million Convertible Note Financing

MIAMI, Dec. 14, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- DELIVER Therapeutics, Inc. ("DELIVER") a company that plans to apply novel, high-throughput screening technologies combined with chemical innovation to DELIVER therapeutics that address the most difficult problems in clinical medicine has been launched with an initial $3M Convertible Note financing by Rapha Capital BioVentures Fund I, LP ("RCBVFI") (https://www.raphacap.com), a venture capital fund managed by  Kevin Slawin, MD, the Founder and Managing Partner of Rapha Capital Management, LLC ("RCM"), along with an experienced team of advisors and financial managers assembled by RCM.

RCBVFI is focused on securing the investment lead, typically at Series A or just before, in target companies that RCM believes have developed transformative products, technologies, or processes that will drive long-term value creation for investors. The $3,000,000 financing will be used to deploy DELIVER's novel technology to screen for small molecules and peptides that target the most important enzymes, signaling molecules and receptors controlling key biologic processes in the most important diseases.

DELIVER is the second biotech company founded by RCBVFI. The first, PONCE Therapeutics, Inc. (https://poncetherapeutics.com), a biotech company leveraging the growing scientific knowledge surrounding the process of aging to develop products to arrest or reverse the aging process, began operations in January 2021. The Company has secured laboratory space alongside PONCE Therapeutics in K2 Biolabs in Houston, TX. With the close of the Convertible Note financing, Kevin Slawin, founder and President of Rapha Capital Management, added the title of Executive Chairman, to his CEO role at DELIVER.

Rapha Capital is an investment management firm focused on making strategic investments in early stage, non-public biotechnology companies, through special purpose, joint venture entities which it manages.  Rapha Capital was founded by its President, Kevin Slawin, M.D., a successful and experienced oncologic and robotic surgeon. After leaving practice, Dr. Slawin has been serving as a biotech consultant, investor, and founder, focusing on disruptive technologies in oncology, T cells and immunotherapy, and other breakthrough healthcare technologies. He is the founder of Bellicum Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ("Bellicum"), a publicly traded company listed on NASDAQ, leading Bellicum to a successful $161 million IPO in December, 2014. He also plays a guiding role in several of the investments managed by Rapha Capital in certain companies, serving as Board Chair of Imagin Medical, Inc. (https://imaginmedical.com), a publicly traded company (OTC: IMEXF), and a board member at 3DBio Therapeutics, Inc. (https://3dbiocorp.com/), FIZE Medical, Inc. (www.fizemedical.com), and Demeetra AgBio, Inc. (www.demeetra.com). 

Kevin Slawin, MD, the Chairman, President and CEO of DELIVER is joined by David Spencer, PhD, COO, Damian Young, Ph.D., CSO and Kayvon Namvar, CFO, as the founders. The core group of Drs. Slawin and Spencer reunites the team that founded Bellicum Pharmaceuticals and took it public in 2014 with a $55 million crossover Series C and a $161 million IPO. Adding Dr. Young, Associate Director for the Center for Drug Discovery at Baylor College of Medicine, brings one of the leading minds in drug discovery technologies to the founding leadership team. Kayvon Namvar, a Principal at RNA Capital Advisors, a financial and strategic advisory firm, has been an integral member of the investment team at RCM for several years.

"Genomics and modern structural biology approaches have identified numerous molecular targets involved in human disease but the progress toward "drugging" many of them has lagged. We are putting chemistry first by applying cutting edge technologies that will accelerate bringing novel small molecules and peptides to compelling human disease targets" said Dr. Young. "The creation of RCBVFI has enabled us to be more creative than just investing in others' companies, to actually found and build companies when we identify a compelling rationale. DELIVER Therapeutics is positioned to discover and develop novel, high impact, compounds for various important diseases that we hope will, in turn, generate great value for our investors" said Dr. Slawin. 

About Rapha Capital Management, LLC and Rapha Capital BioVentures Fund I, LP –  Rapha Capital Management, LLC is an investment management firm located in Miami, Florida, focusing on strategic investments in early stage, non-public biotechnology companies. Rapha Capital was founded by its President, Kevin Slawin, MD, a successful and experienced oncologic and robotic surgeon, biotech consultant, investor, and founder focusing on technologies in oncology, T cells and immunotherapy, as well as other breakthrough healthcare technologies. Rapha Capital Management manages thirteen legacy SPIVs, Rapha Capital Investment I – XIII. Rapha Capital Management offers alternative asset management services to the RCBV Fund, which is the vehicle for all current and future investments managed by Rapha Capital Management.

About DELIVER Therapeutics, Inc.
DELIVER Therapeutics – "Applying novel, high-throughput screening technologies combined with chemical innovation to DELIVER therapeutics that address the most difficult problems in clinical medicine"- DELIVER Therapeutics is pushing the limits by discovering next-generation therapeutics through the application of innovative chemical screening methodologies to enable the modulation of highly validated yet less traditional targets involved in the development and progression of cancer and aging. DELIVER is headquartered in Miami, Florida with research facilities located in Houston, TX.

For more information about DELIVER Therapeutics, Inc., email [email protected] or visit https://www.delivertherapeutics.com

For more information about Rapha Capital Management, email [email protected] or visit https://www.raphacap.com

SOURCE Rapha Capital Management, LLC