Seventure Partners, one of Europe’s leaders in financing innovation and a world-leader in life science microbiome investment, is pleased to provide an update on its Health for Life investments for the period July 2019 to September 2019.
Paris, France – 10 October 2019 – Seventure Partners, one of Europe’s leaders in financing innovation and a world-leader in life science microbiome investment, is pleased to provide an update on its Health for Life investments for the period July 2019 to September 2019.
“The microbiome field continues to gain momentum since we raised our first Health for Life Capital™ fund four years ago, with an increased pace of investment going into microbiome focused companies, and drug candidates moving forward in the clinic.
“We are continuing to attract new investors into our second Health for Life Capital™ fund after the first close in Q1 2019. We have already made two investments from this fund and are continuing to assess additional new opportunities from companies in the microbiome and other fields of digital health, precision medicine and personalized nutrition and will be announcing 2 new deals before year end,” said Isabelle de Cremoux, CEO and Managing Partner, Seventure Partners.
Seventure News
To support its growing portfolio of companies and investment opportunities, Seventure has expanded its team with the appointment of Skerdi Haviari M.D. as scientific director and Armand Karpinski, PharmaD as analyst.
Skerdi Haviari’s experience includes translational scientist at Hospice Civil de Lyons as well as Market Access Analyst at Lilly. He has an M.D. from Universite Claude Bernard, Lyon, an MBA from College des Ingenieurs and Master’s degrees in Medicine and Systems Biology.
Armand Karpinski joins Seventure with experience as a consultant at AEC Partners, as well as External Innovation and Medical Affairs roles at Sanofi. He gained his Doctor of Pharmacy at Universite de Poitiers and an Advanced Masters in Strategy and Management of International Business from ESSEC Business School.
Industry News
As microbiome products reach late stage development and near marketing approval, Seventure welcomes the formation of the Microbiome Therapeutics Innovation Group, an independent coalition of companies leading the research and development of FDA-approved microbiome therapeutics and microbiome-based products to address unmet medical needs, improve clinical outcomes, and reduce health care costs.
Founding members include Seventure investee companies Siolta Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotech company on a mission to alleviate the suffering of millions impacted by chronic inflammatory diseases through novel microbiome-based medicines, focused on the clinical development of its lead product for the prevention and treatment of allergic asthma; and Vedanta Biosciences, a clinical-stage company developing a new category of therapies for immune-mediated and infectious diseases based on rationally defined consortia of human microbiome-derived bacteria.
In addition, other funding members include Seed Health, Rebiotix Inc, and also Seres Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: MCRB).
Health for Life Capital™ Portfolio News
In July, Axial Biotherapeutics Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company harnessing the gut-brain axis to develop novel Central Nervous System (CNS) therapeutics, announced the dosing of the first patient in its Phase 1b/2a clinical trial of its lead candidate, AB-2004. In animal models AB-2004 demonstrated the ability to repair leaky gut and improve repetitive behaviour, anxiety and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)-related sensorimotor gating deficits by removing key microbial metabolites.
BiomX Ltd, an Israeli microbiome company developing both natural and engineered phage therapies that target and destroy harmful bacteria in chronic diseases, has announced that it has entered into a merger agreement with Chardan Healthcare Acquisition Corp. (NYSE: CHAC, “CHAC”) in July. Proceeds from the transaction, expected to complete in October, will provide BiomX with substantial growth capital and the flexibility of a public listing, to further accelerate BiomX’s expansion as a leading microbiome product discovery company.
- In August, BiomX announced the completion of its new state-of-the-art manufacturing facility at the Company’s headquarters in Ness Ziona, Israel. Initially it will be used for the clinical manufacturing of BiomX’s candidate phage products and it can be expanded to support commercial manufacturing needs in the future.
In September, Eligo Bioscience SA, a biotechnology company developing next-generation precision medicines for microbiome engineering, announced the expansion of the Company’s executive management and the development team, with Aurélie Grienenberger, PhD, appointed as Chief Business Officer.
LNC Therapeutics, a French biotech company specializing in gut-brain microbiome-based drug discovery, announced that it has raised €6.2 million via a capital increase and non-dilutive funding in September. This new capital increase of €4.9 million involved the Company’s historic shareholders, including Seventure Partners, NACO (Nouvelle-Aquitaine region) and a new family office. €0.5 million in funding was through a grant from the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as part of its regional innovation grant policy and, in addition, €0.8 million from Bpifrance as part of its Deeptech programme.
MaaT Pharma, a clinical stage company that has established the most complete approach to restoring patient-microbiome symbiosis to improve survival outcomes in life-threatening diseases, announced in September the appointment of Jean-Marc Renard, MS, MBA, as Chief Business Officer (CBO) and Emmanuel Prestat, PhD as Computational Biology Manager.
Microbiotica, a leading player in microbiome-based therapeutics and biomarkers, announced in September, the appointment of Thomas Lynch as its new Independent non-Executive Chairman of its Board.
- Microbiotica also congratulated Dr Trevor Lawley, the co-founder and CSO of Microbiotica, and his academic group from the Sanger Institute on the publication of a paper in Nature in September. The study reported the largest genomic investigation of the microbiomes of newborn babies to date, and could lead to valuable insights on which specific species and strains of bacteria constitute a healthy ‘baby biome’.
In September, Vedanta Biosciences, a clinical-stage company developing a new category of therapies for immune-mediated diseases based on rationally defined consortia of human microbiome-derived bacteria, announced the closing of a $16.6 million Series C-2 financing round, bringing the total capital raised across its Series C and C-2 round to $45 million. Investors’ participating included QUAD Investment Management, SV Investment Corp., Shinhan Investment-Private Equity, Shinhan Capital-Yeollim Partners, Partners Investment Co., Ltd, FC Capital, and SymBiosis LLC, who joined the previous Series C investors, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Rock Springs Capital, JSR Corporation, Shumway Capital, Invesco Asset Management, Health for Life (Seventure Partners), and founder PureTech Health.
Events
During the period, Seventure attended a number of leading conferences and events, including the Animal Microbiome Congress (KISACO), the Microbiome Movement - Oncology Response Summit, as well as the Microbiome-Advanced Therapeutics and Sequencing Congress (MarketsandMarkets).
Over the coming months, Seventure will also be attending / presenting at the following events:
- Keystone Meeting Microbiome: Therapeutic Implications 2019, Killarney, Ireland (October 6-10)
- Denise Kelly presenting - European Academy of Dermatology and Venerology Madrid, Spain (October 9-13)
- Future Food-Tech 2019, London, UK, (October 17-18)
- Isabelle de Cremoux, presenting “Our Gut Feeling: The Link Between Microbiome and the Brain” (Friday, October 18, 11am) - United European Gastroenterology (UEG) week, Barcelona, Spain (October 19-23)
- NutrEvent 2019 (FoodTech event), Rennes, France (October 22-23)
- Isabelle de Cremoux participating on a panel “How are current advances in microbiome analysis bringing combined solutions opportunities to the food industry?” (Tuesday, October 22, 9:00am – 10:30am, Room 9) - Exploring Human Host-Microbiome Interactions in Health and Disease (Wellcome Trust), Hinxton, UK (October 23-25)
- Global Engage - Microbiome R&D and Business Collaboration USA (with Probiotics congress), San Diego, USA (October 29-30)
- Bio-Europe 2019, Hamburg, Germany (November 11-13)
- Isabelle de cremoux, participating on a panel “Dealmaking in the microbiome field: The coming of age” (Monday, November 11, 17:15pm – 18:00pm) - Annual European Microbiome Congress, London, UK (November 13-14)
- Isabelle de Cremoux, presenting “Gut instincts: The steps a microbiome company needs to take to guarantee funding” (Tuesday, 14 November, 8:50 am) - Microbiome Movement Gut Brain Axis 2019, Boston, UK (December 3-5)
- ENDS -
Notes To Editors
About Seventure Partners
With €750m net commitments under management as of the end of 2018, Seventure Partners is a leading venture capital firm in Europe. Since 1997, Seventure Partners has been investing in innovative businesses with high growth potential in two fields: Life sciences across Europe, Israel, Asia and North America and Digital technologies in France and Germany.
In Life sciences, the main areas of focus include “classic” approaches such as biotechnology and pharmaceuticals, diagnostic and medtech, industrial biotechnology, as well as “beyond the pill” approaches such as MICROBIOME-linked innovations, nutrition, foodtech, digital/connected health and personalized medicine. Investments can range between €500k and €10m per round, or up to €20m per company, from early to late stage.
Seventure Partners successfully launched Health for Life Capital™ which invests in Life sciences (health, nutrition, digital/connected health…) with a core focus on the microbiome revolution and its applications in human health, nutrition and food.
In March 2018, Seventure Partners launched AVF, a new fund dedicated to animal nutrition, feed and health with Adisseo as strategic partner. In July 2019, it launched Sport & Performance Capital, dedicated to Sport-tech.
For more details: www.seventure.fr/en Twitter: @seventurep
About Health for Life Capital™
Seventure Partners launched Health for Life Capital™, the first venture capital fund focused mainly on investments “beyond the pill” in the microbiome and nutrition space. Europe is the primary focus of the fund, but it also invests in North America, Asia and Israel.
The €160m first fund launched in 2014 has invested in 20 companies at the forefront of their fields, such as Enterome, Vedanta Biosciences, MaaT Pharma, Eligo Bioscience, LNC Therapeutics, TargEDys, A-Mansia Biotech, BiomX, Microbiotica, Anaeropharma, NeurIMM (renamed LiMM Therapeutics), Siolta Therapeutics, DayTwo, Zipongo, Mdoloris Medical Systems, MycoTechnology, etc.
In January 2019 it launched second fund Health for Life Capital II™ with a target fund size of over €200m. Both first fund and second fund attracted strategic investments from prestigious organisations including Danone, Novartis, a US based global food ingredient provider (to be disclosed), Lesaffre, Tornier, Tereos, Unigrains and Bel, as well as financial institutions and entrepreneurs.
Issued for and on behalf of Seventure Partners by Instinctif Partners.
For more information please contact:
At the Company
Isabelle de Cremoux
CEO and Managing Partner of Seventure Partners
Tel: + + 33 1 58 19 22 77
Email: isabelle.decremoux@
In France
Agence Yucatan
Caroline Prince-Albagnac
Tel: +33 1 53 63 27 35
Email: cprince@yucatan.fr
International
Instinctif Partners
Sue Charles / Agnes Stephens / Dr Kiki Zaccagnini
Tel: +44 20 7866 7863
Email: seventure@instinctif.com
