BioGeneration Ventures has had its first close of a new venture capital fund, ‘BioGeneration Capital Fund III’, for novel diagnostic, medtech and therapeutic biotechs in Europe.
BioGeneration Ventures (BGV) is based in Naarden (Netherlands) and manages funds investing in Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.
Some of its biotech porfolio companies have included Dezima Pharma (acquired by Amgen from Forbion Partners), Mucosis (looking to use probiotics as needle-free vaccines) and argenx (a Belgian llama derived antibody biotech).
The new fund is looking for a total of 12 to 14 new enterprises in the Life Sciences field, with a stronger focus on the Netherlands. Companies working on diagnostics, innovative therapeutics and medtech are of particular interest.
In addition to Dutch and UK based family offices, other existing investors such as Topfonds Gelderland (a fund managed by PPM Oost) and LEH Holding (holding company of Leiden University) joined the new fund.
The BGV team has a successful track record and a broad experience in the life sciences sector. In September of last year, it sold 2 companies it had founded for record amounts. First was Dezima Pharma for up to $1.55Bn, and in December it sold Acerta Pharma for up to $7Bn.
The Acerta Pharma sale was in fact the largest exit ever of a privately held European biotech. In addition, in 2015 BGV sold two other portfolio companies, Lanthio Pharma to Morphosys and NovioGendix to MDxHealth.
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