• Health for Life Capital™ is the world’s first vehicle financing innovation in the promising field of the microbiome
• Having invested in five France-based microbiome companies, Health for Life Capital™ has invested $8 million in US-based Vedanta Biosciences
• Vedanta Biosciences is pioneering the development of new therapeutic classes designed to modulate the pathways of interaction between the human microbiome and the host immune system, being the first to rationally design a drug candidate based on consortia of human commensal bacteria
Paris, France – 6 June 2016 - Health for Life Capital™, managed by Seventure Partners, one of Europe’s leaders in financing innovation, today announces that it has invested $8m as part of a $50m financing round completed by Boston-based Vedanta Biosciences.
This new financing underlines Seventure Partners’ investment focus in the field of microbiome. Vedanta Biosciences is a pioneering drug development company of a new therapeutic class (live bacterial drugs) based on the modulation of the human microbiome.
Health for Life Capital™ invested in the round alongside new US and UK investors (Rock Springs Capital and Invesco Asset Management respectively) as well as historical investor PureTech Health PLC (AIM: PRTC).
“We are proud to participate in this iconic financing. Vedanta recognized that Health for Life™ Capital is the first global fund specializing in the microbiome field able to work with international investors with large pools of capital,” said Isabelle de Cremoux, President and Managing Partner of Seventure Partners and founder of Health for Life Capital™.
“Vedanta rounds out our microbiome portfolio that already includes Enterome (microbiome modulator drugs, diagnostics and companion diagnostics), LNC (drug-probiotic and nutrition products), Maat Pharma (autologous microbiome transplant), TargEDys (bacteria for regulation of appetite) and Eligo Bioscience (highly-specific antibiotics).
We anticipate making additional investments from the Health for Life Capital™ in the coming months.”
Funds from the round will be primarily used by Vedanta to advance several clinical studies in infectious and autoimmune diseases, as well as to scale up its technology.
“We are grateful for the strong support from venture and leading public healthcare investors who share our vision to take the microbiome field beyond faecal transplants and into rationally defined bacterial consortia,” said Bernat Olle, Ph.D., CEO of Vedanta Biosciences. “This financing positions us to advance multiple candidates that have emerged from our discovery platform into clinical trials.”
“The rapid evolution of microbiome research will enable new diagnostics, nutritional products and therapeutics - even the combination of the three. Health for Life Capital™ is supported by Danone, Novartis, Lesaffre, Tereos, Bel and Tornier, as well as by financial investors who share Seventure’s pioneering vision that the technological revolution in this area is making way for a new industry. We imagine it will be as important as the biotechnology industry that we have seen develop in the last 15 years with the United States and France in the vanguard,” predicts Isabelle Crémoux.
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Notes To Editors
About Vedanta Biosciences
Vedanta Biosciences is pioneering the development of new therapeutic classes designed to modulate the pathways of interaction between the human microbiome and the host immune system.
First to rationally design a drug candidate based on human commensal bacteria consortia characterized, Vedanta has capabilities that enable the discovery, development and manufacturing based commensal microbes living medications. The company advance a pipeline of product candidates to treat autoimmune diseases, inflammatory and infectious, which were developed using the proprietary technology platform of Vedanta. Vedanta Biosciences was created by PureTech Health (PureTech Health plc, PRTC.L) and a group of internationally renowned experts in the fields of immunology and microbiology.
Composition of the Board of Directors:
- Board Chairman: Christopher Viehbacher, Managing Director at Gurnet Point Capital and former CEO of Sanofi
- Dr. Bennett Shapiro, former Executive VP of Merck
- Dr. John LaMattina, former President R & D Pfizer- David Steinberg, Co-founder and Executive VP of Vedanta PureTech About Seventure Partners
With over €600m in assets under management as of the end of 2015, Seventure Partners is a leading venture capital firm in Europe. Since 1997, Seventure Partners has invested in innovative businesses with high growth potential in digital technologies, in France and Germany, and in the Life Sciences field across Europe and North America.
In life sciences, the four areas of focus include biotechnology and pharmaceuticals, connected health and medtech, industrial biotechnology, and last but not least: the MICROBIOME, nutrition, foodtech and personalized medicine. Investments can range between €500k and €10m per round, or up to €20m per company, from early to late stage. In December 2013, Seventure Partners successfully launched Health for Life Capital™ which has attracted strategic investments from prestigious organizations including Danone, Tereos, Tornier, Lesaffre, Bel and Novartis as well as entrepreneurs and financial institutions.
Seventure is a subsidiary of Natixis Global Asset Management. Natixis is the corporate investment management and financial services arm of Groupe BPCE, the second-largest French bank.
For more details: www.seventure.com
Issued for and on behalf of Seventure Partners by Instinctif Partners.
For more information please contact:
At the Company
Isabelle de Cremoux
CEO, Managing Partner and Chairman of the Board
Seventure Partners
Tel: + 33 1 58 19 22 77
Email: isabelle.decremoux@seventure.fr
Media contacts
International
Instinctif Partners
Sue Charles / Gemma Howe
Tel: +44 20 7866 7860
Email: seventure@instinctif.com
In France
Agence Yucatan
Caroline Prince-Albagnac
Tel: +33 1 53 63 27 35
Email: cprince@yucatan.fr
