Cognition Therapeutics Nabs Prestigious Luis Villalobos Award


By: Dave Berkus, Dave Berkus, ”Super angel” investor, tech futurist  

--A model for angel-led investment deals and syndication--

Congratulations to Cognition Therapeutics, Inc. (CogRx), a Pennsylvania life sciences company, which ACA recognized as the outstanding angel-financed company for 2016, when they received the Luis Villalobos Award. First among twenty-five finalists, a committee of experienced angel investors selected the firm above its competitors for numerous reasons.

Founded in 2012, CogRx discovered a drug, CT1812, that has the potential to stop, and possibly reverse Alzheimer’s disease. Such disease modifying therapies for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) continue to be a huge unmet medical need. In the U.S., direct costs associated with caring for 5.3 million AD patients was $226 billion in 2015.  The patient population in the U.S. is estimated to increase to 7.1 million by 2025 and 13.8 million by 2050, with Medicaid costs at 1.1 trillion.  Yet there are no clinically proven disease modifying treatments for AD, and no new treatments for AD have been approved since 2003.

CogRx is growing fast and already demonstrating success with revenues over $5,000,000 per year.  Funded first by Golden Seeds angel group and syndicated to other groups throughout the country, CogRx has become a model of an angel-led investment deal – a rare occurrence in the life sciences arena.

The company is currently testing CT1812 in ongoing human clinical trials. Within the next few years Cognition Therapeutics has the potential to be a very significant drug company.

Richard Sudek, Ph.D., Chairman of the selection committee, commented, “This year’s group of candidates was amazing for its quality and diversity. Great examples of companies financed and coached by angels and their networks. We selected CogRx because it stood out for its mission’s importance, its progress along the path to success, its potential for growth, and the amazing depth of angel syndication throughout the nation that this Company has managed so well.”

Cognition Therapeutics has raised $23 million in four financing rounds. Golden Seeds Angels and Funds have invested a total of $5,139,789 in multiple rounds of financing. The most recent financing round raised $12 million which reflected a 20% over-subscription from the original target.  Approximately $9 million of this round was raised from syndication partners. 

Demonstrating the power of a lead angel investor, the following groups followed Golden Seeds into Cognition Therapeutics: Tech Coast Angels, Ogden CAP Associates, Bios Memory SPV I, Pittsburg Life Sciences Greenhouse, Innovation Works, PLSG Accelerator Fund, TMC Investment Company, M5Invest Partners, Ariel Southeast Angel Partners; Scale Investors, (Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation - ADDF), 2M, Dolby Family Ventures, Breedlove Family, Angel Capital Entrepreneur Fund, Corbett Capital, UNIFAM, Stiles-Nicholson Foundation, ASAP, Audrey’s Kitchen, Waco Bend Asset Management, Red Pine Investments, Delta Corporation, Butts Brothers Holdings, GrowCo Capital, and Eagle Integrity Partners among others.

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