Financing opportunity
Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners is poised to invest €150 million in European life science companies following the closing of its BioDiscovery 3 venture capital.
The raising of this fund brings the total under management for life science investments close to €300 million. Along with this first and final closing, Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners has opened a “greenshoe” of up to 10 per for additional investors.
“BioDiscovery 3 is our largest European FCPR focused fund, with €150 million for investment in life science companies,” said Pierre-Michel Passy, CEO of Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners. “The strong support of our existing investors and several new relationships has allowed us to close the fund in just three months. This is clear recognition for our investment strategy, validation of the approach of the life science and growing recognition as expert venture investors.”
Through BioDiscovery 3, the firm will be lead investor in 15 to 20 life science companies across all stages of development. The investments will be in drug development companies and a combination of medical technology and molecular diagnostic specialists. The fund will invest mainly in Europe, putting up to €15 million into each company.
Investors in the new fund include most of Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners’ life science existing investor base, including La Compagnie Financière Edmond de Rothschild, La Caisse des Dépôts and Amgen. Other investors include health insurance companies, public pension funds, social institutions and institutional investors.
In the past eight years, Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners has invested in about 30 life science companies through its BioDiscovery 1 and 2 funds, with exits including five trade sales amongst them Spine Next and U3 Pharma, and a total of seven IPOs, including OncoMethylome Sciences, Cellectis, and ExonHit.
Recent BioDiscovery investments include: Biospace Med of France; Cytomics Pharma, France; Implanet, France; Jena Valve Technologies, Germany; Novagali Pharma, France; Novexel, France; Noxxon Pharma, Germany; OncoMethylome Sciences, Brussels; Pangenetics, Netherlands; and U3 Pharma of Germany, which last week was sold to Daiichi Sankyo Co., Ltd for €150 million.
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