A biotech firm that moved its headquarters from New York to Cincinnati in late 2021 has announced its first major collaboration since planting roots in the Queen City, and officials said the deal will help fuel faster international growth.
Orange Grove Bio, a preclinical drug investment and development firm based at University of Cincinnati’s 1819 Innovation Hub, announced a new partnership Tuesday with SV Investment, a Seoul, Korea-based venture capital and private equity firm. The companies said the partnership will allow them to collaborate on jointly sourcing and developing new therapeutics in the U.S. and East Asia.
Financials were not immediately disclosed.
Orange Grove, a holding company, partners with universities outside Boston and San Francisco, or traditional biotech hubs, to spin out new technologies. Its main focus includes oncological and immunotherapy drugs.
Under terms of the partnership, SV, which invests across life sciences, technology, consumer goods and entertainment, will leverage its relationships in Korea to identify opportunities for early-stage drug development research. When appropriate, Orange Grove will work to license those technologies to create new life science companies in the U.S., with SV Investment serving as an early-stage funder.
Additionally, Orange Grove will identify appropriate drug development licensing opportunities at U.S.-based academic institutions that SV Investment may pursue for development and company creation in Korea.
To support those activities, as well as other investment opportunities, SV Investment is raising a new fund named SV Bio Platform Fund I. It did not disclose the fund’s size.
As part of the agreement, Marc Appel, Orange Grove’s CEO, will also join SV Investment as a venture partner.
“SV Investment has been supportive of Orange Grove Bio’s mission from the beginning,” Appel said in a release. “This new collaboration will be integral to Orange Grove Bio’s global mission to develop an international presence.”
SV Investment CEO Won-Ho Hong said the partnership will allow his firm to identify “cross-border investment opportunities” earlier. He said SV Investment plans to rapidly grow its footprint in the U.S.
Since its founding in 2006, the firm has funded more than 220 companies with 48 successful initial public offerings, or IPOs — including arguably its most notable, music label Big Hit Entertainment, which manages South Korea-based superstar boy band BTS.
Besides its headquarters in Seoul, SV Investment has international offices in Boston, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Singapore.
Orange Grove Bio, previously headquartered in New York, has been largely quiet since relocating its main office to Cincinnati. It was the first out-of-state company to plant roots in the city’s budding Innovation District, an ecosystem anchored by UC and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital along with the under-construction Digital Futures Building, the Uptown Innovation Corridor, the newly added Boulter House and more.
Orange Grove currently partners with more than 40 universities across the country — looking for treatments and technologies it could spin off into subcompanies. Partnering with universities allows Orange Grove to streamline and speed up the development process, it said, and get drugs to market faster.
The company plans to “ambitiously” grow its Cincinnati presence over the next year. Currently, it has 30 employees with 10 based locally.
