'From tinkering to a real venture': VC pioneers bringing lifesaving medtech to fruition

When startup founder Tyler Harmon eloped to New Zealand with his then-fiance in 2019, neither of the US citizens had ever been to the antipodes. They didn’t know anyone in New Zealand, or the burgeoning deep tech scene that Harmon would soon become entrenched within.

Shortly after they landed, the biomedical engineer from Georgia started working in an executive role for a global manufacturer. It wasn’t long, however, before the son of two medical practitioners began developing a groundbreaking piece of AI-based software that provides instant, predictive analytics on Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS), a serious respiratory condition characterised by inflammation of the lungs that kills around 3 million people every year.

By then, Harmon had found his people in New Zealand. One of those was Maria Jose Alvarez, a Chilean tech visionary working at venture capitalist pioneers WNT Ventures, an outfit that was making a name for itself by offering investors the chance to get behind early stage funding for start-ups based on complex science and engineering concepts.

“It was really serendipitous,” he tells The Inside Adviser. “I was learning more about the tech scene… making mutual connections with folks like MJ, and I started to hear more about WNT and their partnership with Callaghan Innovation. I thought ‘oh, this is the kind of public/private partnership I’d always wished the US government was doing more of’.”

The partnership with Callaghan Innovation would prove to be a crucial element of the relationship between the Tyler’s nascent medtech startup, called ‘Iaso’, and WNT Ventures.

The Callaghan Innovation Deep Tech Incubator Program supports technology companies looking for early stage funding. This funding, provided as a loan, is dispersed by aligned venture capital firms like WNT Ventures, which also invests in the startup and provides vital guidance on getting a fledgling startup off the ground.

Harmon was also confident that Alvarez, together with WNT Ventures managing partner Carl Jones, had the kind of experience and expertise he and his own partners needed to get Iaso off the ground. The track record was encouraging: WNT Ventures is now raising for its fourth fund, which at NZ$35 million is likely going to be ten times the size of its first fund. That early NZ$3.35 million fund, started back in 2014, has already been fully returned with three successful investments remaining.

It also helped that both Alvarez and Harmon were cut from the same cloth. “She has a background in biotechnology and engineering so we kind of clicked immediately,” he says.

When they started going the process of teaming up with WNT Ventures and applying for the Callaghan Innovation loan, Harmon recalls, Iaso was being self-funded by himself and a handful of partners. Without support from the Deep Tech Incubator Program, it probably wouldn’t have gone much further.

“They really took us from four folks in the garage, just tinkering, and helped make us like a real venture,” he says. “I mean, [they] were an absolute blessing throughout the whole process.

“If it wasn’t for them stepping into the picture, we would have still been bootstrapping and still… you know, sort of in the wilderness a little bit, but having them to help direct us and help us get started has been a real pivot point for us.”

The Iaso software is still in development, going through the kind of feasibility testing and validation checkpoints any new medical device needs to before it becomes safely applicable. A commercial launch is loosely scheduled for next year, with Series A funding along the way.

He says Iaso is working “hand in glove” with WNT to get ready for it, but the plan is for the relationship to continue long after successive rounds of funding are secured.

“We anticipate still having MJ on our board and still having her help and guidance throughout this whole process. We definitely want her along for the long haul.”