Spencer Trask

Spencer Trask is a leading private equity firm discovering ideas to shape the 21st Century. The legacy of the firm goes back to Mr. Spencer Trask who financed Thomas Edison’s light bulb invention. With its Network of business leaders and co-investors, it provides visionary entrepreneurs with both the intellectual and financial capital to transform bright ideas into world-changing companies. Spencer Trask ventures span emerging technologies: communications, healthcare, software & information.

In Biotechnology, Spencer Trask was associated with the financing of Myriad Genetics, a leading player in the field of molecular diagnostic, co-founded by Nobel Prize winner Walter Gilbert and currently a $ 3.5 billion market cap company. Another Spencer Trask successful financing is Osiris Therapeutics, Inc., a stem cell therapeutic company, develops products to treat medical conditions in the inflammatory, orthopedic, and cardiovascular areas. Osiris is currently valued at over $ 400 million and has a strategic partnership with Genzyme for two of its lead development programs.

In high technology,. Spencer Trask & Co.'s Chairman, Kevin Kimberlin, spearheaded the initial financing, of Ciena, the company that made the Internet possible by exploding fiber optic capacity with the first wave division multiplexing systems. He was later joined by blue-chip co-investors Siemens, AT&T, Bessemer Trust Company and Sevin Rosen. First round investors saw a 750-fold increase in value from "the largest stock offering by a start-up in history at $ 3.44 billion”.

Spencer Trask and 21 West Partners have formed a partnership to advise life sciences companies on corporate transactions and financing. Dr Daniel Teper, CEO and Managing Partner of 21 West Partners, was given the role of Senior Managing Director, Healthcare and Life Sciences at Spencer Trask, as part of this unique alliance.