Dive Brief:
- Two European venture capital firms with a focus on healthcare announced Wednesday they have raised hundreds of millions of euros in funds primed for investment.
- Forbion said it has raised 750 million euros, or about $820 million, to close the Forbion Ventures Fund VI, which is focused on new companies in early stages of development. The firm also brought in 600 million euros for the Forbion Growth Opportunities Fund II, which targets investments in late-stage life science companies.
- Meanwhile, Gilde Healthcare announced 600 million euros in commitments for its Venture&Growth VI fund, which will focus “on growing companies developing solutions for better care at lower cost.” Altogether, Gilde Healthcare said it has raised 1.5 billion euros across three funds in the past three years.
Dive Insight:
The news adds to a string of announcements of fresh cash in the last month from life sciences VC firms including SR One, Cure Ventures, Canaan, Lux and Wellington Management.
Yet, despite funds reloading, investment activity into private biotechnology companies has faltered compared to recent years. Startups that raised Series A financing when investment was still booming in 2021 are particularly feeling the pinch, finding less appetite for a round of Series B fundraising at the same valuations.
Companies who expected to go public quickly are now facing what venture capitalist Bruce Booth describes as “indigestion” in the market. First quarter figures show a decided drop from the “tsunami of funding that washed over the sector in recent years,” Booth wrote in a recent blog post.
“While there’s clearly some starvation happening now, and likely some regrettable corporate failures, it’s a broader consequence of over-indulging on a huge surplus of funding for years and the inevitable lowering the bar for quality,” Booth wrote. “This new retrenchment will hopefully help address those excesses.”
Certainly, there’s plenty of cash on the sidelines ready to be deployed, Booth added. Forbion said both of its funds exceeded their original targets and the total fundraising marked the firm’s largest to date. The demand reflects investor confidence in the fundamentals of the industry even in a time of market uncertainty, general partner Robbert van de Griendt said in Forbion’s news release.
Forbion said its Growth Opportunities Fund II intends to take “leading positions” in companies, primarily later-stage European biopharmas, with investments of as much as 70 million euros. Gilde Healthcare’s new fund aims to invest between 10 million and 60 million euros in new portfolio companies.