Deal of the Week: Family office backs cutting edge technologies to fight neurological disorders

Efforts to find better therapies for neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s received support in a series of deals backed by a family office at the forefront of funding brain disease and injury research. 

San Francisco-based Dolby Family Ventures has backed two ventures in the past week working to find cures and therapies for neurological disorders. The family office is owned and run by Dave Dolby, the son of Ray Dolby, who founded Dolby Laboratories, most famous for its Dolby sound innovations. 

Dolby Family Ventures was one of six investors committing $31 million to Salvia BioElectronics. The Dutch group is involved in the emerging field of “BioElectronics” to restore health for people suffering from severe neurologic disorders such as Alzheimer’s. Founded in 2017, Salvia has already received $35 million in funding, although Dolby Family Ventures is the first significant family office investor. 

In the same week, the family office also backed NeuroTherpia, which is developing new therapies for diseases with an underlying component of neuroinflammation such as Alzheimer’s. Dolby Family Ventures committed $8.8 million with three other investors, including the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation, to the Ohio-based group. 

Both investments were at a Series A level. 

Dolby Family Ventures has concentrated much of its biotech investing in ventures looking for cures and better therapies for Alzheimer’s, which, according to Dave Dolby, is due to his desire to find a cure for the disease because his father suffered from it, before succumbing to leukaemia in 2013.