Forbion announces first close of Forbion Growth Opportunities Fund II at €470 million
- New fund to invest in late-stage European life sciences companies
- Investors include Pantheon, pension funds PME and PMT, Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, Eli Lilly and Company, Reggeborgh and Wealth Management Partners
Naarden, The Netherlands and Munich, Germany – June 9, 2022 – Forbion, a leading European life sciences venture capital firm, today announces the first €470 million (USD 500 million) close of its Forbion Growth Opportunities Fund II (“Forbion Growth”), focused on investing in late-stage European life sciences companies, exceeding its €450 million target size.
This new Growth Opportunities Fund has attracted several new institutional investors, including pension funds PME and PMT, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and Reggeborgh, who join returning investors Pantheon, Wealth Management Partners and Eli Lilly and Company.
The second Forbion Growth Opportunities Fund will continue to invest in mostly European, later-stage biopharma companies, developing novel therapies for areas of high medical need. The Fund will target this market segment with three proven strategies: providing private growth capital for mature clinical development-stage assets, furnishing pre-IPO funding to companies pursuing a public listing in the near-term, and injecting capital and hands-on capabilities to under-valued public companies. In these financings, Forbion Growth Opportunities II aims to take leading positions with investment sizes of up to €70 million per deal. The team’s goal is to build a portfolio of 15 such investments in the most promising late-stage European life sciences companies.
Forbion expects to reach its €600 million hard cap, completing the raising of Forbion Growth Opportunities Fund II over the summer.
Sander Slootweg, Managing Partner and co-founder of Forbion said: “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. A recent example is the sale of Gyroscope Therapeutics to Novartis for a total consideration of $ 1.5 billion earlier this year, after a mere nine-month hold period.”
Dirk Kersten, General Partner, added: “In the past two years, we have successfully deployed Forbion Growth Opportunities Fund I, providing growth capital to a selected number of high-quality European life sciences companies. 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.”
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For more information, please contact:
Forbion Investor Relations
Email: Robbert.van.de.Griendt@forbion.com
General Partner IR & Impact
Forbion Communications
Email: laura.asbjornsen@forbion.com
Head of Communications
Consilium Strategic Communications
Ashley Tapp, Sue Charles
Email: forbion@consilium-comms.com
Tel: +44 (0)20 3709 5700
Notes for Editors:
About Forbion
Forbion is a dedicated life sciences venture capital firm with offices in The Netherlands, Germany and Singapore. Forbion invests in life sciences companies that are active in the (bio-) pharmaceutical space. Forbion manages well over EUR 2 billion across multiple fund strategies that cover all stages of (bio-) pharmaceutical drug development. Forbion’s current team consists of over 30 life sciences investment professionals that have built an impressive performance track record since the late nineties with investments in 87 companies. Besides financial objectives, Forbion selects investments that will positively affect the health and well-being of patients. The firm is a signatory to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment. Forbion operates a joint venture with BGV, the manager of seed and early-stage funds, especially focused on Benelux and Germany.
For more information, please visit: www.forbion.com
