Two of Europe’s most experienced venture investors have joined forces to set up an investment firm called Óskare Capital to targeting medical cannabis product developers from seed to patient stage.
Nicola Broughton and Alexandre Ouimet-Storrs are the co-founders and managing partners at Óskare Capital, which launched its first fund yesterday. Its first investment was in Octarine Bio, a developer of cannabinoid and psilocybin derivatives.
Ouimet-Storrs was previously managing director for Europe at Solvay Ventures, the $100m evergreen corporate venturing unit for France-based chemicals and materials producer Solvay. In November 2019, he backed a University of Edinburgh spinout called Invizius in a round led by asset manager Mercia Asset Management.
Broughton was previously principal and head of universities at Mercia and said by inmail: “Universities and corporates will play a big role in what we are doing.”
Broughton and Ouimet-Storrs said in a joint statement: “Our goal is to help bring technologies in Europe to other geographies as well as be a founding member of the medical cannabinoid ecosystem in Europe. We are raising and advising a €150m ($170m) fund based in Ireland.”
