Lumos was set up with the firm belief that startups need valuable and timely advisory services, in addition to capital, to effectively scale their business. Having worked with hundreds of such startups, and being very entrepreneurial in nature ourselves, we firmly believe in the ability of these advisory services to help startups grow.

We are Asia’s premier Healthcare accelerator. We have unique and strong capabilities to help startups expand into India, Singapore and other parts of Asia. This is borne out of the strong business networks we have in these areas.

On account of our close ties with HCG, we are ideally positioned to help companies in the oncology space and adjacencies. Correspondingly areas of strong interest include immuno oncology (checkpoint inhibitors, and more), digital pathology, genomics, and generally applications of AI/ML that make more effective use of tomes of data of cancer patients. There is also strong interest in early cancer detection using existing or new biomarkers.

Examples of adjacencies include nutraceuticals geared towards cancer patients, scalp cooling systems, retailers of wigs and prosthetic breasts, wound management systems, and holistic wellness using alternative medicinal systems like Ayurveda.

Since, we look at startups at a very early stage (Seed/Pre-A) we do have a (small) preference for founding teams with strong pedigree – with qualifications/work experience from Hopkins, Mayo Clinic, Sloan Kettering, Sanger or premier biotech programs globally. However, we will carefully review each relevant application on its merit and make an informed decision after consultation with our team.

A few months into the advisory process we carefully evaluate each portfolio company for funding discussions (assuming they are in the midst of a fund raise). If there is good alignment, and mutual interest, we begin discussions with Anthill’s Funds and with our vast network of investors, both individual and institutional.