Pharmaceutical firm Boehringer Ingelheim has committed €150m in capital to its corporate venturing vehicle, Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund (BIVF), increasing its total investment in the fund to €250m ($300m).
BIVF typically provides between €10m and €15m to each portfolio company in totL, where initial commitments vary between €500,000 and €3m. Its investment areas are focused on but not limited to immuno-oncology, tissue regeneration, gene therapy and cell-based therapeutics as well as the microbiome.
The unit was originally set up in 2010. It started its serious investment activity on US soil in 2013, where it opened an office in Cambridge, Massachusetts, committing $130m to invest in US-based startups. The 2018 funding injection comes as it about to open another office, on the west coast of the US.
The fund has so far scored exits in two nine-figure acquisitions: RNA therapeutics developer Rigontec, which was purchased by Merck & Co for $554m, and respiratory syncytial virus vaccine developer Okairos, acquired by GlaxoSmithKline for $325m.
The number of new funding initiatives (whether funds with multiple LPs or new CVC units) focused exclusively on the health and life sciences space has remained fairly stable over the years, as the bar chart by GCV Analytics shows.
However, the sector did register a drop to 26 funds in 2017, down from the 37 such initiatives recorded in 2016. With exciting developments in areas like genetics and gene therapeutics and immuno-oncology, it remains to be seen what 2018 will have in store for corporate venturers and other investors.
