Forbion Capital Partners, an investment firm dedicated to the life science sector, has held the final closings of FCF I Co-Invest Fund and FCF II, raising a total of more than EUR190m (USD240m).
Forbion’s EUR54m Co-Invest Fund aims to invest alongside FCF I in a select number of late-stage FCF I portfolio companies.
FCF II has an investment strategy similar to its predecessor fund FCF I.
Forbion aims to invest the majority of the fund 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.
Last year, Forbion sold Fovea Pharmaceuticals to Sanofi Aventis and PanGenetics to Abbott.
Forbion recently decided to expand its European footprint by opening an office in Munich and by hiring Dr. Holger Reithinger, formerly with Global Life Sciences Ventures and 3i, in April of this year.
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.
Bart Bergstein, managing partner at Forbion, says: “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. The fact that both existing limited partners decided to continue backing us and that many new investors decided to commit as well makes us very proud. 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.”
