Forbion closes €190M venture fund for life sciences investments

Funding opportunity

Life Sciences investor Forbion Capital Partners has announced the final closings of both FCF I Co-Invest Fund and of FCF II, having raised a total of more than €190 million.

Forbion’s €54 million Co-Invest Fund will invest alongside FCF I in a select number of late-stage FCF I portfolio companies.  Meanwhile, FCF II has an investment strategy similar to its predecessor fund FCF I. The majority of the fund will be invested in Europe, and the remainder in North America and Israel.  

The investment focus is on private companies developing novel drugs, medical devices and diagnostics for high- or even unmet medical needs. This is serving a market that is both driven by the pharmaceutical industry’s continued need for new products to supplement its ailing pipeline, and by patient demand for safer and more effective treatments.

Forbion typically leads the investment syndicates it forms and has built a strong track record in recent years. Last year it was involved in two of the three most successful exits of private, European life sciences companies, with the sale of Fovea Pharmaceuticals to Sanofi-Aventis and the sale of PanGenetics to Abbott.

Forbion recently decided to expand its European footprint, opening an office in Munich and hiring Holger Reithinger, formerly with Global Life Sciences Ventures and 3i.

FCF I Co-Invest Fund has already committed funds to five companies, including Circulite, Pathway Medical, AMT Holding, Biovex and Xention. Following the first close of FCF II, investments have already been made in Niti, arGEN-X, Exosome, Promedior and Cardoz.

In this fundraising, Forbion further expanded its global investor base to include the European Investment Fund, US and EU pension funds, major insurance companies and leading European family offices.  

Bart Bergstein, Managing Partner of Forbion said, “We are very pleased to have raised such a substantial amount, as fundraising conditions have never been more challenging. Forbion’s long-running, successful track record in making life science investments, built over the past decade has been pivotal in our ability to raise this new capital.”

“Given that only few venture players have active funds to commit from, we currently see many highly attractive assets from an increasingly rich deal flow. We are therefore confident that both new funds could be at least as successful as FCF I.”

Juan Delgado-Moreira, Managing Director at Hamilton Lane in London, UK, and one of the longstanding investors in Forbion said, “It is the Forbion team’s proven ability of applying commercial focus in investing in this technology-rich space that makes Forbion one of the strongest managers.  We believe the European life sciences market to be very interesting if you are able to select the right funds.”

For more information, visit http://www.forbion.com