FreeMind Investments, a venture capital fund launched in partnership between FreeMind Group and Daewoong Pharmaceutical, has announced its investment in General Proximity, a San Francisco-based biotechnology company pioneering next-generation induced proximity medicines.
General Proximity has built what it describes as the first mechanism-agnostic proximity discovery engine, centered on scanning the effectome — the complete set of effector proteins that can modulate disease-causing proteins — to identify highly efficacious proximity therapeutics for targets previously considered beyond the reach of medicine.
The company has raised more than $20 million, secured five Golden Ticket awards from major pharmaceutical companies, including AbbVie, Servier, Astellas, Ono, and Bristol-Myers Squibb, and recently announced a strategic collaboration with Daiichi Sankyo applying its OmniTAC platform to multiple oncology programs. The investment also reflects Daewoong Pharmaceutical’s strategic interest in General Proximity’s platform and its intent to explore a future strategic collaboration.
FreeMind Group, founded in 1999, is the leading non-dilutive funding consultancy for life science organizations, having helped clients secure more than $2 billion in funding from NIH, DoD, BARDA, NSF, FDA, and private foundations, garnering more than $100 million annually. FreeMind Investments leverages the firm’s non-dilutive funding review process as a differentiated due diligence tool, using the rigor of that review to identify high-conviction investment candidates early. The fund also provides investees with access to pharma deal-making networks, co-development opportunities, and entry into the Asian market through Daewoong Pharmaceutical’s global commercial infrastructure, which spans strategic partnerships in more than 100 countries.
Established in 1945, Daewoong Pharmaceutical is a leading South Korean pharmaceutical company with in-house R&D capabilities and international operations across Asia and the United States. Seongsoo Park, CEO of Daewoong Pharmaceutical, described significant strategic potential in General Proximity’s induced proximity approach and expressed interest in building a future strategic collaboration. FreeMind Investments founder Ram May-Ron highlighted General Proximity’s quality of science, strength of team, and potential to unlock new therapeutic options for long-intractable targets as the key factors driving investment conviction.
General Proximity’s OmniTAC platform advances multiple preclinical programs across oncology, cardiometabolic disease, neurodegeneration, and longevity, positioning the company at the intersection of several of the highest-priority areas in drug discovery.
KEY QUOTES:
“FMI was built to translate deep non-dilutive funding intelligence into investment conviction. General Proximity stands out for the quality of its science, the strength of its team, and its potential to unlock new therapeutic options for targets long considered out of reach.”
Ram May-Ron, Founder and Managing Partner, FreeMind Investments
“We are excited to welcome FreeMind Investments and Daewoong Pharmaceutical as investors. Their investment conviction and deep expertise in drug discovery validates our scientific approach and the high-impact pipeline we are building.”
Armand Cognetta, Founder and CEO, General Proximity
