BOSTON, June 19, 2019 — Locust Walk, a global life science transaction firm, today announced the appointments of Neil Higgins, Managing Director of Financing, and Turner Grant, Senior Vice President of Financing. Both executives will report to Brian Coleman, Global Head of Financing and Sales, as the firm continues to expand its capabilities to support capital raising for biopharma and medtech companies.

“I’ve known Neil Higgins and Turner Grant for over twenty years and they both bring tremendous investor relationships to Locust Walk. They both have extensive experience raising capital for early stage companies with a particular focus on biopharma and medtech, and I’m excited to welcome them to the firm,” commented Mr. Coleman.

Prior to joining Locust Walk, Mr. Higgins spent nearly 20 years in equity sales and equity sales management positions at Bank of America, Piper Jaffray, and Jefferies. Mr. Higgins brings extensive experience in crossover, IPO and follow-on financings, particularly in the biopharma sector, as well as considerable expertise in private company marketing.

“Locust Walk has a tremendous reputation in the marketplace as a trusted partner to emerging biopharma and medtech companies. Given the surging global demand from investors for access to high quality, innovative life science companies, we believe the timing is ideal for our life science clients to access funding for their innovative next generation therapies and devices,” commented Mr. Higgins.

Prior to joining Locust Walk, Mr. Grant dedicated the past twenty-two years to raising capital for growth companies across numerous industries, with a keen interest in the life sciences. Mr. Grant held positions at Lehman Brothers as Vice President and as Director at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey. Most recently, Mr. Grant was with Chardan Capital Markets working closely with leading innovators in the fields of genetic medicine and digital health. Mr. Grant focuses on private placements for biopharma and medtech companies, as well as leading business development activities across Locust Walk’s capabilities and geographies.

“Locust Walk has done an incredible job at building a great brand in the life science community, offering deep expertise across many critical areas of need in today’s rapidly changing environment. Building out the financing capability is a logical extension of the platform,” commented Mr. Grant.

More from Brian Coleman, Global Head of Financing and Sales

At the BioEquity conference in Europe this past May, Brian Coleman moderated a Panel, ‘Drawing Your Financing Roadmap,’ to discuss the expanding range of financing options that early stage life science executives must navigate. The financing landscape is more robust and varied than it has been in the past and most companies need guidance on how best to prepare and execute their next raise.

To help companies navigate this changing market, Locust Walk is expanding the financing team to create distribution for companies looking to raise private capital. No other advisor helps companies upfront with their strategy, storytelling, and valuation, and then runs a comprehensive process covering venture capital, crossover, hedge fund, family office, and other institutional sources of capital.

Financing Capabilities at Locust Walk

There has been a significant shift in capital allocation in life science investing over the past several years. Venture capital rounds have increased in size. Family offices have become more sophisticated, deploying more capital in financings that often do not include institutional investors. Traditional public market investors have begun entering the private financing market. While this environment may seem challenging for life science companies, these new dynamics can increase a company’s optionality and access to capital. Nonetheless, after attaining initial round(s) of funding, many biopharma and medtech companies fail to secure enough private capital to carry them to a value-added exit or IPO. The Locust Walk private financing business supports companies between seed funding and IPO and is focused on helping companies achieve their financing goals and leveraging the other capabilities offered by the firm. In 2018 alone, Locust Walk raised $80MM for private companies.

About Locust Walk

Locust Walk is a global life science transaction firm. Their integrated team-based approach across capabilities, geographies, and industry segments delivers the right products, the right partners, and the most attractive sources of capital to get the right deals done for biopharma and medtech companies.