Panakès Partners, an Italian venture capital firm in the life sciences sector, has closed its Purple Fund with a total of €175 million ($185.4 million).
Panakès Purple Fund is currently the largest Italian Venture Capital Fund, in the investment phase, dedicated to life sciences, with an investment focus in Italy and Europe, as well as the U.K., Switzerland, Israel and the U.S.
The funds will allow the management team to continue to pursue its investment strategy of building a portfolio of innovative companies developing diagnostic, medical and therapeutic technologies, at all stages of their development. To date, the fund has already made three investments, with others expected shortly, in the medtech and biotech sectors.
Panakès Partners launched first fund in 2016
Purple is the second venture capital fund for the life sciences launched by Panakès Partners. The first was launched in 2016, and raised more than €80 million to support companies in the medtech sector. It invested in 12 different companies.
In 2022, the portfolio companies raised more than €210 million from both Italian and international investors, including corporates in the sector. Among those funded were MMI, InnovHeart, BetaGlue Technologies, and Vivasure.
The Panakès Partners Purple fund has benefited from the participation of the majority of investors in the first fund, together with new ones, including the two anchor investors, EIF and the FoF VenturItaly Fund of Funds of CDP Venture Capital SGR. In addition to these, numerous Italian companies and family offices in the life sciences sector, including Menarini, the Cogliati family (Elemaster Group), the Colombo family (SAPIO Group), the Rovati family (Rottapharm Biotech), the Petrone family (Petrone Group), the Re family (Digitec Group), the Bassani family (Movi Group) and others. Also, various Italian financial institutions and banking foundations have invested in the new fund, such as Banco BPM, Quaestio Capital (on behalf of some of its institutional investors, including Fondazione Cariplo) and pension funds such as ENPACL, Cassa Forense and Inarcassa.
“We are very satisfied with this result, for which we would like to thank the investors who have trusted us,” said Fabrizio Landi, president of Panakès and founding partner of the company, together with Diana Saraceni and Alessio Beverina.
“As was perceived at the JPMorgan conference held in January in San Francisco, having the capital available for investment today, in such a delicate moment for the world economy, is an excellent opportunity to finance under the best conditions the future champions of healthcare.”