Netherlands-based, healthcare-focused venture capital firm BioGeneration Ventures closed its fourth fund yesterday having raised €105m ($119m) from limited partners including pharmaceutical firm Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS).
BMS and fellow existing backers Schroder Adveq and the European Investment Fund (EIF) joined newly minted LPs including Industriens Pension and KfW Capital in contributing to the oversubscribed BGV IV.
Founded in 2006, BioGeneration Ventures invests in seed and early-stage pharmaceutical developers working on drugs with convincing experimental data as their basis.
The firm now has more than €220m under management. It closed its third fund at $95.5m in 2017, when BMS, Schroder Adveq and EIF joined LPs including Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC, the corporate VC arm of medical products group Johnson & Johnson to supply the capital.
Edward van Wezel, managing partner of BioGeneration Ventures, said: “Over the last few years, BGV has demonstrated that investing in early-stage companies in Europe can bring innovative science to meet patients’ needs worldwide as well as financial value to investors.
“The early-stage science coming out of European Institutions is second to none and we are working with those at the forefront of their fields. We believe we can make a significant difference to companies in helping them translate promising science into transformational new medicines.”
