Cradle of Biotech in Europe! Wellington Partners & Novo Venture Back With Million+ Fund
Munich-based Wellington Partners has well surpassed its initial target of €150M for its fifth life sciences fund. With a total €210M raised, this new fund is more than double the size of Wellington’s previous life sciences fund. Also, their new invesment backup, German bank KfW, German insurance company Talanx and the investment arm of the University of Texas are pouring the investment into this potential sector.
According to Wellington Partners, the fund will invest in 15 to 20 life science companies, and the investment limit can be up to €20M in each one. Its main focus will be companies located in Europe, a major focus on those located in German-speaking countries. However, the VC will also consider selected investments in North America and Asia. The VC also invests in developers of medical devices, diagnostics, and digital medicine that are nearing regulatory approval or have already launched a product.
Aside from Wellington Partners from Germany, Another fund from Europe is Novo Ventures, tried to be “the cradle of great life sciences,” it also prepared $25M for seed round company which are developing new drugs. And now it spreads the hands to Boston, the innovation core of technology and bio-tech.
Now Novo is chipping in $25 million to become a partner on that front over the next five years. All 4,000 of the investigators affiliated with the Broad can apply to the accelerator, dubbed Novo Broad Greenhouse, for around $500,000 to test their ideas within a year and a half. If they pass the seed stage, Novo will fund the projects further through a sprout stage until they are ready to bloom — either through a biotech spinoff or pharma out-licensing.
生醫新創孵化搖籃 歐洲基金募到手軟
德國慕尼黑 Wellington Partners完成第五支生命科學基金的募集，該基金原本預計募資1.5億歐元，最後共募集到2.1億歐元，比起先前募集的基金，新一支基金超募達兩倍以上。
而新一輪資金也迎來了新投資人加入，包含德國銀行KfW、德國保險公司Talanx和德州大學的附屬投資部門，顯示出生命科學領域備受矚目。
據Wellington Partners指出，第五支基金將計畫投資15～20間生命科學公司，最高投資金額為兩千萬歐元，投資範圍則會優先以歐洲的德語區為主，其次也會將北美與亞洲區的新創公司納入考慮，至於投資項目則會以醫材、診斷器具和精準醫療等領域為主的新創公司。
除了德國基金，另外一支來自丹麥的基金則打算把觸角伸向北美的新創重地─波士頓。
諾和諾德集團（Novo Group）的Novo Ventures最近也籌集了2,500萬美元，打算在接下來五年內投資那些走在醫學前端的新藥公司。值得一提的是，該基金將聚焦於種子輪的投資，只要向加速器Novo Broad Greenhouse申請，通過的公司將獲得50萬美元，並且有一年半內的時間可以驗證自己的點子到底行不行得通；對於通過種子輪審核的公司， Novo也會大力支援，直到公司開花結果為止。
