Closed in 1999, the Taraval Associates Seed Capital Fund (TASCF) is a fully-invested, $7.5 million new venture development fund with a life sciences focus.  Success for TASCF was to shape its ventures to attract later-stage financing from larger venture firms and/or enter corporate partnerships.  TASCF portfolio companies have attracted follow-on and co- investments from Asset Management, Baker/Tisch Investments, Bay City Capital, CM Capital (Brisbane Australia), Cycad Group, DFJ Frontier, GBS Ventures (Melbourne Australia), Orbimed Advisors, Sears Capital Management, Sofinnova Ventures, Stephens & Company, Tullis-Dickerson, Vivo Ventures and others.  TASCF has made three distributions to date: ProLinia, Dentigenix and CathRx (listed on the ASX).

Raised in 2005, the Taraval Associates Annex Fund (TAAF) is a follow-on fund to TASCF; it is intended to protect TASCF’s best positions and increase positions in that Fund’s most promising portfolio companies.  More than 90% of TAAF’s $1.5 million in committed capital has been deployed on follow-on investments in five TASCF portfolio companies; it is essentially fully invested.

In 1995 Mr. Murphy formed TransGen Partners (TGP) and raised $105,000 to purchase the interests in A/F Protein held by Salmond Smith BioLabs of Auckland, New Zealand.  Additions to partners’ capital for more equity and exercise of warrants brought TGP’s total capital to $325,000.  In March 2006, the successor company, Aqua Bounty Technologies (ABTX) went public on the London Stock Exchange, representing an IRR of 27%.  TGP distributed the shares and wound up in 2006.