Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners has closed its BioDiscovery 4 venture capital fund for European life science companies after raising EUR192m (USD250m), increasing by almost 25 per cent its investment capacity compared to the size of its previous life science fund.
With this closing the total funds raised by EdRIP for life sciences investments to about EUR450m.
“This is a great achievement for Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners and its life science team. At over EUR190m, BioDiscovery 4 is our largest European FCPR focused fund so far,” says Pierre-Michel Passy, chief executive of Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners. “The strong support of our existing investors and several new relationships have allowed us to raise the fund in a little more than a year. We see this as clear recognition for our investment strategy and a recognition of our life science team as expert venture investors.”
Through BioDiscovery 4, Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners will lead investments in 15 to 20 life sciences companies across all stages of development. The investments will be made in therapeutic drug development companies and a combination of medical technology and molecular diagnostic companies. The fund will invest up to EUR20m per company, mainly in Europe.
Investors in the new fund include the majority of Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners’ life science existing investor base, including the Edmond de Rothschild Group and La Banque Publique d’Investissement (BPI France). Other investors include insurance companies, retirement funds, public pension funds, social institutions and other institutional investors.
In the past 13 years, Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners has invested in 46 life science companies, through BioDiscovery 1, 2 and 3 funds.
BioDiscovery investments made during 2013 so far include: Oncoethix (Switzerland); Complix (Belgium); Allecra (France); JenaValve (Germany).
