Your Series A investor syndicate will set the tone in your business for years. The Lead investor will largely drive the shape of the syndicate and investors will take over control of the board. The choice of investors will affect every major aspect of your business, your strategy, capital allocation, future financings, your own role in the company. Governance lasts longer than the round.
Selecting a lead is therefore not about price alone. It is about personal fit, alignment on scientific conviction, pace of development, appetite for risk, and long-term ambition.

In this INSIGHTS session, Jack O’Meara, CEO and co-founder of Aerska, will share his experience of raising his recent Series A round for Aerska, a Dublin-headquartered biotechnology company developing delivery technologies designed to enable RNA interference (RNAi) therapeutics to reach the central nervous system.

Earlier this year, Aerska announced a €32 million Series A financing led by EQT Life Sciences – Dementia Fund (The Netherlands) and age1 (SF-based early-stage). EQT Life Sciences is part of the global investment organization EQT and is one of the 2 or 3 leading VC investors in European life sciences. age1 is a Berlin-based early-stage investor focused on therapeutics.

Jack is a repeat biotech founder with experience building and financing venture-backed therapeutics companies. Prior to Aerska, he co-founded Ochre Bio in Oxford, where he raised over $100 million in financing from tech / biotech investors and partnership capital, by establishing collaborations with major pharmaceutical companies.

His capital strategy combines discipline with deliberate network-building. He met Ochre Bio’s lead investor through a podcast he hosted, an example of how strategic visibility can translate into institutional backing.

Jack has been recognized on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in healthcare.

In this session, we will examine fundraising strategy across four dimensions:

Syndicate Architecture
How the Series A syndicate was constructed, the criteria for selecting a lead investor, and the governance implications at this stage.

Milestone Design
Which scientific and translational milestones were positioned as Series A value inflection points, and how preclinical data was framed for investor diligence.

Negotiation Dynamics
Lead versus co-lead considerations, valuation and dilution trade-offs, and how terms were structured to support long-term development strategy.

The CEO’s Role
How Jack approached investor selection, narrative framing, board alignment, and company execution while running the financing process.