BioGeneration Ventures Finalizes $167M Fund for Biotech Startups in Europe

What You Need To Know:

• Dutch venture capital firm BioGeneration Ventures (BGV) has secured €150 million ($167 million) for its fifth fund.
• The firm bases itself in Naarden, Netherlands, focusing on European drug developers. However, 78% of the new investors, forming most of the new investor base, are from the US.
• Returning investors include well-known corporate entities like Eli Lilly, Novo Holdings, and Bristol Myers Squibb—all returning for Fund V.
• BGV plans to invest in roughly 12 companies, allocating more funds to each than in previous rounds. Managing partner Edward van Wezel explained, “Our focus is to build these companies from scratch…So about half of our portfolio are companies that we either found ourselves or found with from a very, very early stage onward.”
• Notable portfolio companies mentioned in the article:
  • BGV highlights its successful investment in Acerta Pharma, acquired by AstraZeneca for $7 billion, with its BTK inhibitor becoming a top oncology drug.
  • BGV reaped returns from Synaffix, sold to Lonza for an upfront €100 million, and Dualyx, which garnered a $44 million Series A round for Treg-based therapies.
  • Other notable situations include Confo Therapeutics licensing a GPCR drug to Eli Lilly and Complement Therapeutics raising $79 million to trial its retinal AAV gene therapy.
• Despite a downturn in the biotech sector, BGV remains largely unaffected due to a focus on M&A for exits, not IPOs.
• BGV sees ongoing opportunities in the European biotech sector.

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