Sweden-based venture capital firm Eir Ventures raised €76m ($86m) on Friday for the first close of a life sciences-oriented fund backed by pharmaceutical firm Novo.
The fund’s limited partners also include the European Union-owned European Investment Fund, Swedish government-founded VC firm Saminvest and Danish Growth Fund, the state-owned investment fund also known as Vækstfonden.
Eir Ventures will seek out innovative university research and intends to work alongside Nordics-based incubators. More broadly, it anticipates participation in deals across the region as well as the rest of Europe and the United States.
Amanda Hayward, former managing director of state-backed venture unit Connecticut Innovations, is Eir Ventures’ special partner. Its investment team consists of life sciences-focused managing partners Magnus Persson, Stephan Christgau and Andreas Segerros.
Søren Møller, managing partner at Novo subsidiary Novo Seeds, said: “Novo Seeds has been investing in the Nordic life science industry for more than 10 years, and we have seen steady growth in number and quality of investment opportunities.
“We are therefore very excited to be one of the founding investors of Eir Ventures. In addition to making a profitable fund investment, we look forward to working with the team to translate more Nordic innovation into startups.”
The original version of this article appeared on our sister site, Global University Venturing.