Morningside Private Investors

Morningside Private Investors is a family office founded in 1987, based in Ridgefield, Connecticut, with an additional office in Bettendorf, Iowa. The firm specializes in management buyouts, recapitalizations, and growth capital investments, focusing primarily on the manufacturing, distribution, and service sectors. It targets companies involved in engineered products, industrial equipment, commercial services, and logistics, particularly those that serve commercial and industrial markets, energy, infrastructure, environmental, and basic chemicals. Morningside seeks investments ranging from $10 million to $75 million in companies with revenues exceeding $25 million and EBITDA above $5 million. The firm prefers to make majority or minority stakes and typically holds investments for eight to ten years. Morningside also emphasizes investments in companies benefiting from low-cost natural gas, while avoiding those directly involved in the exploration and production of natural gas.

Andrea Jensen

President

10 past transactions

InCarda Therapeutics

Series A in 2015
InCarda Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, develops transformative therapies for cardiovascular diseases that enable patients to use in the first moments of acute cardiovascular symptoms. The company develops an inhaled therapy intended to treat paroxysmal atrial fibrillation. InCarda Therapeutics, Inc. was formerly known as Pleiades Cardio-Therapeutics, Inc. and changed its name to InCarda Therapeutics, Inc. in May 2011. The company was founded in 2009 and is based in Newark, California.

Lamabang

Series C in 2015
Lamabang, a Chinese social network and ecommerce company. Lamabang targets women at four different stages in their journey to parenthood: pre-pregnancy, pregnancy, childbirth, and early parenting. The original Lamabang website is a web portal with articles, forums, and a Weibo-style social network complete with a news feed. More than just parenting, topics range from fashion to healthcare to lifestyle.

LIZHI INC.

Series C in 2015
LIZHI Inc. operates a prominent online user-generated content audio community and interactive audio entertainment platform based in Guangzhou, China. Founded in 2010, the company aims to enable users to showcase their vocal talents through its LIZHI app, which allows for recording, editing, and sharing audio content on mobile devices. The platform includes a range of features such as podcasts, audio live streaming, and interactive audio products, fostering a vibrant community for audio content creation and sharing. LIZHI has also collaborated with Xpeng Motors to integrate its audio content into the company's in-car intelligent operating system. With a mission to connect people through voices, LIZHI envisions a global audio community that transcends cultural boundaries.

Apellis Pharmaceuticals

Series C in 2014
Apellis Pharmaceuticals is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company based in Waltham, Massachusetts, dedicated to developing therapeutic compounds that inhibit the complement system to address autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. The company's lead candidate, pegcetacoplan, is undergoing Phase III clinical trials for geographic atrophy associated with age-related macular degeneration and paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria, while also being assessed in Phase II trials for several other conditions, including cold agglutinin disease and lupus nephritis. Additionally, Apellis is developing APL-9, which is currently in Phase I clinical trials aimed at preventing immune activation related to adeno-associated virus. The company collaborates with Swedish Orphan Biovitrum AB to advance pegcetacoplan for various rare diseases. Founded in 2009, Apellis focuses on creating innovative therapies for conditions characterized by excessive activation of the complement cascade across multiple medical fields, including hematology and ophthalmology.

Metao.com

Series B in 2014
Metao.com, operated by Beijing Science and Technology Co., Ltd., is a cross-border e-commerce platform designed to enhance the overseas shopping experience for Chinese consumers. The platform connects users directly with a wide range of international brands, offering products across various categories such as clothing, electronics, cosmetics, and more. With a focus on quality, Metao.com collaborates with numerous suppliers and offers thousands of products, ensuring a diverse selection for its customers. The platform facilitates real-time price adjustments in line with foreign exchange rates and supports payments in RMB and via PayPal. Additionally, Metao.com prioritizes efficient and secure logistics services, aiming to simplify the overseas shopping process and make it more accessible for consumers.

Idibon

Series A in 2014
Idibon, Inc. develops language technologies that help companies to understand their language data. Its natural language processing solutions enable organizations to understand unstructured data, such as emails, instant messages, and social media. The company was founded in 2012 and is based in San Francisco, California.

Woqu.com

Series B in 2014
Woqu travelling website (我趣旅行) is an online travel reservation platform, helping users plan a self-help trip. It is a one-stop service for planning individualized overseas trips with inclusive of tours, hotels, tickets, visa, shopping, car rentals, insurance and many other options that a traveler would require. The clients can also decide their own travel routes, and the proceed with the reservations required directly. And now, the business of Woqu.com has covered the American, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Thailand and Europe.

Snowball Finance

Series C in 2014
Snowball Finance Ltd. is a Beijing-based internet financial information service provider that operates the online platforms iMeigu.com and Xueqiu.com. iMeigu.com offers stock quotes, business news, and analysis reports for Chinese companies listed in the United States, catering to American stock investors in China. Xueqiu.com serves as a social network for Chinese investors, providing them with investment solutions, cross-market data queries, newsletter subscriptions, and interactive communication services. The platform encompasses information on A shares, Hong Kong stocks, and the U.S. stock market, making it a comprehensive resource for investors looking to engage in various markets.

Meilapp.com

Series B in 2014
Meilapp.com is a Shenzhen-based Chinese beauty and cosmetics. The company says it will use the proceeds on marketing, brand building and team expansion. Launched in 2013, Meilaipp.com has close to one million daily active users, who share and purchase beauty products and cosmetics through its web portal and mobile apps.

Lamabang

Series B in 2014
Lamabang, a Chinese social network and ecommerce company. Lamabang targets women at four different stages in their journey to parenthood: pre-pregnancy, pregnancy, childbirth, and early parenting. The original Lamabang website is a web portal with articles, forums, and a Weibo-style social network complete with a news feed. More than just parenting, topics range from fashion to healthcare to lifestyle.