About Lumira Ventures

Lumira Ventures is a leading life sciences venture capital firm with over $700 million in assets under management. The firm invests across the healthcare spectrum, from therapeutics to medical devices, with a portfolio that spans seven continents of limited partners.

With a track record that includes transformative exits like Histosonics ($2.3 billion partial sale), Endotronics, Opsins, G1, and Fusion, Lumira has established itself as a premier investor in the healthcare innovation space. The firm is led by Managing Partner Peter van der Velden and COO Jacki Jenuth, who brings deep technical expertise to the firm's operations.

Lumira is currently raising Fund 5 alongside the Cancer Breakthrough Fund—the first cancer-focused venture fund of its kind in Canada, developed in partnership with the Terry Fox Foundation. This dual fundraise across seven continents of investors created an urgent need for streamlined, scalable LP onboarding.

Opportunity

Lumira faced a common challenge among established venture firms: their LP onboarding and fundraising processes had grown increasingly fragmented and inefficient as the firm scaled globally.

The firm's subscription document process ran through external law firms, creating what Peter van der Velden described as a frustrating lack of visibility. The team had limited insight into where LPs were in the signing process, and the experience varied significantly depending on which legal team handled a particular closing.

For family offices — a growing segment of Lumira's LP base — the friction was particularly acute. Traditional data rooms felt institutional and impersonal, failing to convey the firm's brand and the compelling story behind their investments. Meanwhile, the internal team at Lumira, led by Jacki Jenuth, had built sophisticated custom systems for investor relations and reporting, but lacked a modern solution for the critical fundraising and onboarding workflows.

"Our KYC process and our subscription process is more random because it's done through the law firms," explained van der Velden. "We have less visibility and control over it, and I don't love it."

The timing was critical: Lumira was preparing simultaneous first closes for Fund 5 and the Cancer Breakthrough Fund, with institutional LPs, family offices, foundations, and corporate investors all requiring different experiences and documentation.

Mid-Story Quote

"For the first time, we have complete visibility into where every LP stands in the process. That alone changes everything — we're not chasing law firms for updates anymore.”

Jackie Jenuth, Partner & COO, Lumira Ventures

Solution

Lumira evaluated Vessel against their existing tools and processes, focusing on two initial priorities: LP onboarding and the fundraising data room experience.

What resonated with the Lumira team was Vessel's philosophy of treating the data room as a digital extension of the firm's meeting room — a branded space that maintains momentum rather than killing it. As Jenuth noted after seeing the platform, the ability to create a tailored experience for family offices while maintaining institutional-grade compliance was exactly what they needed.

The implementation moved quickly. Within weeks of the initial conversations, Lumira's team was configuring branded marketing pages for both funds, with Vessel's customer success team digitizing their subscription documents and building custom KYC flows for Canadian individuals, U.S. individuals, Canadian entities, and U.S. entities.

The onboarding process revealed Vessel's flexibility. Lumira had specific requirements around tax documentation, identity verification, and the ability to track beneficial owners through complex entity structures. Vessel's team worked alongside Lumira's CFO Vasco Larcina to ensure every nuance of the subscription process — from CRA tax forms to W-8BEN documentation — was properly integrated.

"Devil's always in the details with any system," Jenuth observed during the implementation. "I just want to understand the things that we'll get and the things I'm going to lose." The Vessel team's responsiveness and domain expertise made the difference, with dedicated support available on weekends to meet Lumira's aggressive timeline.

Results

Lumira is now positioned to launch both Fund 5 and the Cancer Breakthrough Fund on Vessel simultaneously, with a modern LP experience that reflects the firm's brand and operational excellence.

"What impressed me was how quickly the Vessel team got up to speed on our requirements. They weren't just a tech vendor — they understood the complexity of what we were building and moved at our pace to get it done.”

Jacki Jenuth, Partner & COO, Lumira Ventures Streamlined LP Management

The unified platform gives Lumira complete visibility into LP progress through the subscription process — something previously obscured within law firm workflows. The team can now see exactly where each investor stands and proactively address any bottlenecks.

Enhanced Family Office Experience

Family offices now encounter a branded, intuitive experience rather than a traditional data room. The marketing pages showcase Lumira's track record with prominent exit highlights, embedded presentations, and a clear path to subscription — all designed to maintain the momentum from initial meetings.

Reduced Legal Costs and Errors

By digitizing subscription documents with pre-populated fields based on LP questionnaire responses, Lumira eliminates the manual errors that previously required costly corrections. The KYC passport feature means returning LPs can reinvest across vehicles without repeating the entire process.

Engagement Tracking

For the first time, Lumira can track how LPs engage with their materials — which documents they view, how long they spend, and when they're ready to move forward. This intelligence helps the fundraising team prioritize follow-ups and understand LP intent.

Integrated Compliance Identity verification through Plaid, AML screening, and proper tax documentation are now embedded in a single workflow. The system handles the complexity of different investor types — individuals, trusts, corporations, and partnerships — with appropriate documentation requirements for each.

Impact

For Lumira, Vessel represents more than operational efficiency — it's about presenting the firm's brand and track record in a way that matches the quality of their investment approach.

The Cancer Breakthrough Fund, in particular, benefits from a platform that can tell a compelling story. As Canada's first fund of its kind, developed with the Terry Fox Research Institute, it requires an LP experience that conveys both the impact mission and the investment thesis. Vessel's marketing pages allow Lumira to communicate that dual value proposition clearly to family offices and foundations who are drawn to the fund's unique structure.

Looking ahead, Lumira sees potential to expand their use of Vessel into investor reporting — creating a unified portal where LPs can access everything from subscription documents to quarterly reports to portfolio company updates. The foundation is now in place for a fully integrated LP experience that scales with the firm's growth.

For a firm that has delivered exits like Histosonics and built a portfolio of companies transforming patient care, having technology infrastructure that matches their investment excellence is essential. With Vessel, Lumira has found a partner that understands both the operational demands and the relationship dynamics of institutional fundraising.

"We had an aggressive timeline and a lot of complexity — two funds, multiple entity types, cross-border compliance. The Vessel team was right there with us, working weekends to make sure we launched on schedule.”