Catalytic Impact Foundation Fund

WHO WE ARE

The Catalytic Impact Foundation (CIF) is a 501c3 organization that aggregates philanthropic capital to make impact investments in early-stage life science and healthcare companies addressing unmet medical needs. Using an evergreen fund model, which CIF has coined “regenerative philanthropy”, returns from investments go back into the fund to be recycled for more impact. Billions of dollars are spent annually funding scientific research, but just a small fraction of that research ever leaves the lab, often due to lack of funding once the technology reaches the commercial stage of development. CIF works to address the funding gap for early-stage companies throughout North America, Europe and Israel, to help them through the “Valley of Death” and along the path to commercialization. We bring the discipline of venture capital investing to making impactful venture philanthropy investments.

$20,000,000

TARGET SIZE OF FUNDS

Sector

Healthcare, Biotech

Stage

Series A, Seed, Pre-Seed

Region

North America, Europe

Countries

Founder(s)

Rachel Butler

Rachel Butler has extensive experience and expertise analyzing, evaluating, and investing in early- and mid-stage companies in the life sciences and healthcare industry. Since 2016, she has reviewed hundreds of such companies and served as a team leader, overseeing and managing the research, analysis, and investment processes, to select companies for presentation and/or investment, beginning at Cavendish Global and then at Cavendish Impact Foundation. She is a lead member of the investment team that invested in the CIF portfolio of innovative healthcare companies. Previously, she served as co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of Asthma Magazine, a patient education publication for asthma and allergy. The magazine was used by the NHLBI to educate participants in its nationwide children’s asthma (CAMP) study; by Merck to launch its first-in-class asthma drug, Singulair; and by the American Lung Association, the American Academy of Asthma, Allergy and Immunology, the National Association of School Nurses, health maintenance organizations, disease management companies, and private practitioners throughout the country, to educate their patients about the condition. Subsequently, she guided the company through its acquisition by Elsevier Health Sciences, a leading publisher of medical journals, where she continued as Editor-in-Chief for five years. She is a graduate of St. Lawrence University, a trustee and treasurer of the Ross Conservation Trust, and is an avid skier, sailor, tennis player. She is married with four children and lives near Boston, MA.

Richard Lipkin

Richard Lipkin is a Co-Founder, Co-Chair, and Co-Manager of the Investment Committee, of the Catalytic Impact Foundation (CIF), since its origin in 2015. He is also a Managing Director of Easton Capital Investment Group, a NYC-based life sciences and healthcare venture capital firm; and a co-Founder and Co-Chair of Princeton Alumni Angels (PAA), focusing on healthcare and life sciences. Through CIF, he serves as a Board Director of Epivax Therapeutics and Ceretype Neuromedicine, and Board Observer of Deck Therapeutics. Previously, he served as a partner of Commerce Health Ventures, a life sciences and healthcare fund of NewSpring Capital; Laird & Company, a private merchant bank; and other private investment partnerships, including as a biotech analyst and consultant for a Goldman Sachs hedge fund. He also served as Executive Director, Strang Cancer Prevention Center; Chief Financial Officer, ResponseLogic, a database company; and Director, International Development, for IDT Corp., including the launch of Net2Phone. He has consulted for DARPA, and served as a writer and editor for SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN and SCIENCE NEWS, producing more than 400 articles, chapters, and books for many organizations, including NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, NATURAL HISTORY, THE JOURNAL OF NIH RESEARCH, JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE, FRONTIERS IN HUMAN NEUROSCIENCE, THE WILSON QUARTERLY, SMITHSONIAN BOOKS, WNET-13, UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL, GROLIER’S ENCYCLOPEDIA, and the American Mathematical Society; reprinted by ANNUAL EDITIONS, GLOBAL STUDIES, SOCIAL ISSUES RESOURCE SERIES, the U.S. Information Agency, and recognized in WHO’S WHO IN SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING and MEN OF ACHIEVEMENT. He was awarded the American Chemical Society’s GRADY-STACK AWARD, recognizing analysis of basic and applied scientific and medical research. He has studied cognitive and computational neuroscience at Columbia University and the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA, and served on Columbia University Medical Center’s Health Sciences Advisory Council (former Chairman), Neuroscience Council, and previously Medical Science and Technology Council (Founding Member). He is a frequent panelist, moderator, judge, mentor and advisor to many companies and impact organizations, active in many not-for profit, educational, and social progress ventures, and served as Director, Board member, committee member, program overseer, grant reviewer, including in neuroscience and oncology research; served as member of boards, councils, and committees for the Weizmann Institute of Science (ACWIS Director; Audit Committee), the Israel Cancer Research Fund (Director; Executive Committee, Audit Committee), Rockefeller University (Member; Council), the Marine Biological Laboratory (Board of Overseers), Columbia University, the New York Academy of Sciences, and the Montefiore Medical Center. He is an honors graduate of Princeton University, has an MBA from Columbia Business School, and served as a Senior Staff Associate in Columbia University’s Zuckerman Institute of Mind, Brain, and Behavior. He lives in New York City with his wife and two sons.