NewCo Creation
New Company Creation
Since launching our first company in 2021, Locust Walk has developed a structured approach to newco creation – an extension of our Co-founder Mentality in its most direct form. We partner with founders and entrepreneurial teams to create new biopharma companies around differentiated clinical-stage assets and cutting-edge platforms. This capability has evolved into Banyan BioInnovations, a dedicated investment firm founded by Locust Walk that builds new companies around best- or first-in-class clinical-stage drug assets, leveraging Locust Walk’s offices and networks in the United States, Asia, and Europe. Often, after running a partnering process where partners maintain significant interest in the asset but want to see additional clinical validation, we can pivot the relationship towards a NewCo.
Our client work and our NewCo creation work represent two sides of the same platform, one connecting assets with the right partners through strategic transactions, the other forming companies, building teams, investing and syndicating capital to advance promising programs. Through Banyan, this company creation capability is further strengthened by a veteran centralized clinical development team, consistent process discipline, and centralized development infrastructure, ensuring every NewCo launches ready to execute from day one.
Our Co-Founder Model
Founders and innovators are at the center of our approach; they are the driving force behind medical advancement. Their expertise is invaluable, which is why we want their continued involvement either on the board of directors, a management role, and/or clinical or scientific advisory boards.
As a co-founder, Banyan Bio’s incentives are aligned with the other founders to optimize the value so all parties can benefit. As an investor, we approach other investors as syndicate partners and peers. This alignment is built into every NewCo from inception, originators retain meaningful equity participation and licensing economics, while Banyan co-leads the investment on the same terms as independent investors without marking up the value, ensuring all stakeholders have a shared stake in every outcome.
We receive a portion of founders’ equity, a small royalty, and a success fee upon completion of the financing.
What We Look For
Assets: Clinical-stage programs preferably with patient data and validated mechanisms that address unmet medical needs with differentiated best-in-class or first-in-class potential.
Platforms: Transformative, next-generation science that goes beyond incremental innovation in any therapeutic area or modality. For now, cell and gene therapies are deprioritized.
Partnering with Existing Companies
For early-stage biotechs that have completed a seed round, we offer flexible engagement models combining cash and equity, bringing co-founder-level thinking and strategic expertise to accelerate growth. For companies with promising clinical-stage assets ready for dedicated development, Banyan offers a structured path, forming an independent NewCo around the asset, capitalizing it through broad syndication, and deploying a centralized development team to advance it efficiently through key value inflection points.
AN INVESTMENT PLATFORM FOUNDED BY LOCUST WALK
Banyan BioInnovations
AN INVESTMENT PLATFORM FOUNDED BY LOCUST WALK
Banyan BioInnovations is an investment firm powered by Locust Walk that leverages global sourcing and on-the-ground presence in the US, China and Japan to create clinical-stage companies around best or first-in-class drug candidates. We deploy a veteran centralized development team and turnkey infrastructure to optimize clinical and regulatory execution, guiding each asset through key value inflection points. Banyan Bio’s differentiated and collaborative approach ensures that the drug’s originator, investors, our NewCos, and patients
all win together.