Novo Growth Equity Expands Team, and Will Invest Up to $200M Per Year
COPENHAGEN & BAGSVAERD, Denmark--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Novo Growth Equity, an investment activity of Novo A/S, announced today that it has expanded its leadership team in Copenhagen. Industry veterans Scott Beardsley and Michael Shalmi have joined the team as senior partners. Christina Sylvester-Hvid also joined as a principal. Ulrik Spork continues to lead the Novo Growth Equity effort at Novo A/S as managing partner. Novo Growth Equity expects to make its first investment within the next six months.
With the creation of Novo Growth Equity, Novo has significantly increased its commitment to be a long-term investment partner for successful later stage life science companies. Novo Growth Equity’s mandate is to provide substantial capital to enable the most promising global life sciences companies to realize their full potential.
“We saw an overwhelming need in the market for growth stage capital for promising life science companies in Europe and the U.S.,” says Ulrik Spork, managing partner of Novo Growth Equity. “As part of Novo A/S, we have the capability to provide significant capital, be active and independent investors, and provide our expertise to companies as ‘venture catalysts.’ I am thrilled that Scott, Michael and Christina are joining me in this effort.”
Scott Beardsley joins Novo Growth Equity from JP Morgan in San Francisco, where he most recently was a managing director, and led the firm’s West Coast biopharmaceuticals effort. He brings 17 years of investment banking experience to the team, including more than a decade focused exclusively on life sciences. Prior to JP Morgan, Scott led Piper Jaffray’s U.S. biopharmaceutical investment banking practice, and was an investment banker in Montgomery Securities’ healthcare group.
Michael Shalmi, M.D., joins Novo Growth Equity from Novo Nordisk, where he has spent 15 years in various international management positions with global responsibility, most recently as corporate vice president of Global Development, Clinical Operations Management at Novo Nordisk headquarters. Over the course of his long career with Novo Nordisk, he also held a variety of other roles with global and local (Europe and U.S.) responsibility. Michael brings to the Novo A/S team a broad knowledge of the health care business environment, including both R&D and marketing and sales.
Christina Sylvester-Hvid, PhD joins Novo Growth Equity from Wiborg Biotech Consulting, where she was a partner, and helped numerous companies execute on scientific due diligence and assess clinical and commercial potential of product opportunities.
Novo Growth Equity will invest up to $200 million (USD) annually into promising later stage and commercially viable life science companies. The new growth equity initiative supplements Novo’s existing seed and venture capital activity, which has been investing about $100 million (USD) annually into more than 50 early and mid stage life sciences companies since 2000. With a total of up to $300 million (USD) annually, Novo A/S’s investment pace is comparable to a traditional fund in excess of $1 billion (USD).
About Novo A/S
Novo A/S is the holding and investment company of the Novo Group, and is wholly owned by the Novo Nordisk Foundation. Novo A/S was formed in 1999 to actively manage the assets of the foundation. It employs about 30 people and has approximately $12 billion (USD) under management. This includes significant shareholdings in the publicly listed Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE: NVO) and Novozymes A/S (NVZMF.PK), as well as seed and venture capital portfolios, and a broad portfolio of financial assets. By supporting thoughtful creation of insight and value across the spectrum from discovery to commercialization, Novo A/S is leveraging the unique funding structure of the Novo Group and living the vision of the Novo Nordisk Foundation, while harvesting the fruits of life science.
Contacts
The Helm Group, Inc. Sarah Kulka, +1 617-480-9140 sarah@thehelmgroup.com
or
Novo Growth Equity Ulrik Spork, +45 4442 6469 (direct) Managing Partner us@novo.dk