Date: 2012-09-19
Type of information: Fundraising
Company: Wellington Partners (Germany - UK - Switzerland)
Investors: European Investment Fund (EIF) (EU) - LfA Foerderbank Bayern (Germany) - Austria Wirtschaftsservice GmbH (Austria) - several large family offices
Amount: € 70 million
Funding type:
Planned used: The Wellington Partners life science team comprising the General Partners Rainer Strohmenger, Erich Schlick, Regina Hodits, Harald Keller, Ernst Mannheimer and Rolf Dienst will focus on investing these funds in innovative companies in the areas of medical devices, diagnostics and biotechnology on a pan-European basis.
Others: Wellington Partners has announced the successful first closing of its new Wellington Partners IV Life Science Fund which has attracted commitments from investors of € 70 million. With a target size of € 120 million, this new fund is expected to be significantly larger than the previous Wellington Partners III Life Science Fund, which raised € 78 million.
The new fund has attracted investors from Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Benelux, France, the UK, the US and the Middle East. Among the main investors in Wellington Partners IV Life Science are the European Investment Fund (EIF), LfA Foerderbank Bayern, Austria Wirtschaftsservice GmbH and several large family offices.
Wellington Partners was an early investor in Swiss-based listed pharma player Actelion and in mtm laboratories, a German diagnostics company focusing on cervical cancer screening, which was acquired by Roche in 2011 for up to € 190 million. The active portfolio comprises a number of highly promising life science companies, including: immatics, a leading therapeutic cancer vaccines company with a broad clinical pipeline, including a renal cell cancer vaccine already in phase III clinical development; invendo medical, which received FDA approval for its disposable colonoscope earlier this year; Oxford Immunotec, a diagnostics company marketing its blood test for latent TB infection globally, thereby addressing a blockbuster market; and Symetis, which is currently launching a highly innovative second-generation minimally invasive heart valve. In light of these success stories many existing investors also participated in the new fund and increased their commitments.
Therapeutic area:
