The Forbion Growth Opportunities Fund II will invest mainly in later-stage biopharmaceutical firms in Europe, focusing on marketing treatments for diseases with high unmet needs.
European life sciences venture capital firm Forbion has closed a new growth opportunities fund at €470 million ($500 million), exceeding its own €450 million ($484.31 million) goal.
The Forbion Growth Opportunities Fund II, also called Forbion Growth, will be investing mainly in later-stage biopharmaceutical firms in Europe, with a particular focus on developing and marketing treatments for diseases with high unmet needs. Its plans include furnishing pre-IPO funding to companies looking to list publicly, providing private funding to mature clinical development-stage assets, and investing capital and hands-on capabilities in undervalued public entities.
“The European market for late-stage, private life sciences investments is large and remains significantly underserved. The increase in the number of institutional investors committing to the Forbion Growth Opportunities Fund II is a testament to our successful track record in investing in late clinical stage life sciences companies,” Sander Slootweg, managing partner and co-founder of Forbion, said.
Forbion said it is considering investment sizes of as much as €70 million ($75.18 million) per deal. The goal is to create a strong portfolio of 15 of the most promising late-stage life sciences companies in Europe. More interestingly, while Forbion has already received €470 million for the latest fund, it is still expecting to hit as high as €600 million ($644.37 million) by the end of summer.
“Forbion Growth has built the most experienced and sizeable team in Europe focusing on the late-stage segment, and is ready to continue investing in ambitious life sciences companies looking to accelerate their growth. We are therefore very excited to announce this substantial first close of Forbion Growth Opportunities Fund II, and look forward to the final close of the fund later this year,” Dirk Kersten, general partner at Forbion, added in the same statement.
When it comes to capital, Forbion is a powerhouse, managing over €2 billion ($2.15 billion) across multiple drug projects in various stages of development. Through a team of more than 30 life sciences investment experts, the company has investments in 87 companies, in addition to its joint venture with BGV, which manages and seeds funds in Germany and Benelux. Forbion is also a signatory to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investments.
In January 2022, the company, alongside BioGeneration Ventures, extended its collaboration deal with Lonza to include developing and manufacturing small molecules. Lonza already provides services to the two firm’s large molecule biologics portfolio companies.
“This expanded strategic relationship exemplifies our value and capabilities to help advance biotech companies on the path to commercialization. It also highlights our flexibility and commitment to providing high-quality development and manufacturing to serve the clinical needs of our customers’ portfolio companies, whilst also leveraging our GMP manufacturing expertise,” Pnina Weitz, global head of venture capital business development and relationship management at Lonza, commented in a separate statement.
In this new deal, Lonza will take care of early development services and scalable manufacturing for small molecules, including drug substance development, oral solid drug product development, particle engineering development and regulatory services.
