Two new venture capital funds, Droia Ventures and Perceptive Advisors closed on new funds to invest in early-stage life science companies.
The thirst for good investment opportunities in the life sciences continues to grow. Two new venture capital funds, part of well-established venture capital firms in Europe and the U.S., closed on new funds to invest in early-stage life science companies.
Droia Ventures’ New Fund Worth $265 Million
Droia Ventures, based in Brussels, Belgium, closed on its third fund, now worth $265 million (U.S.). The focus will be on investing in early-stage biotech companies working on therapies for genetic diseases. It is named Droia Genetic Disease and is designed along the same lines as its oncology-focused funds, which will also continue to invest.
So far, Droia Genetic Disease has made three investments in the European Union and the U.S. and hopes to invest in nine or 10 more in the upcoming years. Droia indicates that all limited partners of its oncology funds are also participating in the Droia Genetic Disease fund and are top-tier institutional and private investors from Europe and the Americas.
George Golumbeski, former executive vice president of Business Development at Celgene, has joined Droia to support the new fund. He will work from the U.S. on both genetic disease and oncology investments.
“This is an important milestone for Droia,” said Janwillem Naesens, managing partner of Droia Ventures. “Our distinct investment model has proven its merit in oncology and is now demonstrating its applicability to genetic diseases. Luc Dochez will be managing partner for the new fund. With his long and outstanding track record of building successful genetic disease companies and with George joining forces, we are fully set to make this another great success.”
Perceptive Advisors Closes $515 Million Venture Fund
Based in New York and Boston, Perceptive Advisors announced the first and final closing of Perceptive Xontogeny Venture Fund II. It raised $515 million in an oversubscribed raise. This more than triples the firm’s funds under management to $725 million in less than two years after closing the PXV Fund I.
The new fund will focus entirely on early-stage venture capital, which complements Perceptive Advisors’ Life Science Fund, a hedge fund, and Credit Opportunities Funds. It plans to be the only or predominant lead investor in Series A rounds ranging from about $20 to $40 million, with funds available to participate in Series B rounds afterward.
The PXV Funds are led by Chris Garabedian, portfolio manager, chairman and chief executive officer of Xontogeny.
Xontogeny is based in Boston and acts as a life science accelerator, providing seed investments and strategic and operational support to early-stage life science companies. The idea is to fund biotechs from preclinical through early clinical development and the generation of proof-of-concept data in people.
“With PXV Fund I, we were able to quickly identify and fund a number of opportunities that were high quality with tremendous potential for addressing important disease areas and the potential for generating outsized value creation,” said Garabedian. “I’m excited that we will continue our funding of promising early-stage life science companies through clinical proof-of-concept with the PXV Fund II.”
Garabedian went on to say, “The portfolio of opportunities in which we invested from PXV Fund I was quite diverse across modality and therapeutic area and we are pleased with the progress in advancing almost all of the portfolio companies from preclinical stages into clinical studies in less than 18 months from inception. We are grateful for the trust and enthusiasm that our limited partners, both new and existing, have shown in this strategy of product-focused, data-driven value creation.”
