Fountain Healthcare Partners, a venture capital spin-out from Ireland-based biotechnology company Elan Corporation, has reached the first close of its second fund having raised €85m ($98.5m).
The Irish government provided €15m of the funding for Healthcare Partners Fund II, which hopes to raise €125m in total. The fund forms part of the Enterprise Ireland Seed and Venture Capital Scheme 2013-2018.
More than 90% of the capital was sourced from institutional investors, predominantly funds of funds, sovereign funds, pension funds and an undisclosed strategic corporate investor.
Healthcare Partners Fund II intends to fund 10 to 15 companies and will focus on specialty pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, medical devices and diagnostics, with three quarters of the funding to be invested in Europe and the rest in the US.
The fund has already closed two deals, providing funding to US-based anti-smoking drug developer Chrono Therapeutics, which raised $32.5m in a series A round in June 2014, and Innocoll, an Ireland-based drug delivery technology company that went public in the US in July.
– A version of this article first appeared in Global Government Venturing.