European VC Invivo readies its latest fund to back new biotechs

2024-03-06

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Dive Brief:

Barcelona-based venture capital firm Invivo Partners is preparing to close an expected fund of 100 million euros, or $109 million, the third since its formation.

In a LinkedIn post on Tuesday, managing partner Luis Pareras said the firm anticipates closing the new fund, which has a hard cap of 120 million euros, “in the coming weeks.” Invivo also promoted Laura Rodriguez, a principal with the firm, to partner.

The announcement comes after a flurry of new fundraises for biotechnology venture firms, but amid a slowdown for VC investors overall. Venture firms across all sectors raised $67 billion in 2023, their lowest total in six years, according to the latest annual report from Pitchbook and the National Venture Capital Association. Yet biotech VC pulled in about $15 billion in each of the last two years, both of which were among the highest totals reported in the past decade.

Dive Insight:

Invivo is coming off a few successes. Kidney disease drug developer Sanifit Therapeutics was acquired by Vifor Pharma in 2021 in a deal worth 205 million euros. A year later, liver-focused biotech Versantis was bought by Genfit for about 43 million euros.

With its latest fund, Invivo is looking to to invest in more cutting-edge areas of drug development, among them artificial intelligence, synthetic biology, and cell and gene therapy, Pareras said on LinkedIn. Cell therapy maker Gyala Therapeutics and gene therapy developer Telomere Therapeutics are already among its investments. The firm has backed more than 15 biotechs since its inception, partner Albert Ferrer said in a statement.

“With this third fund, we are more optimistic than ever about the potential opportunities awaiting in the field of life science,” Ferrer said in a statement.

Ferrer, a veteran of Spain's venture capital scene, launched Invivo in 2012 with Pareras, a neurosurgeon by training. Portfolio companies from its first fund, which debuted in 2019, have raised more than 220 million euros to date, according to Invivo.

Invivo joins several other biotech-focused firms, among them Abingworth, Venrock and Westlake Village Biopartners, to raise new funds in the last year. Flagship Pioneering and Arch Venture Partners are in the process of closing new funds as well.

Those funds are coming together at a time when investors are making larger, but fewer investments in companies that are generally more advanced in their journeys. Venture firms invested $18.4 billion across 481 biopharma deals in 2023, down from $24.5 billion over 559 deals in 2022, according to Pitchbook and NVCA’s report.

Still, there are signs of a shift. Newfound optimism in biotech has spurred an early surge in initial public offerings as well as follow-on fundings for public companies. Some industry insiders interviewed by BioPharma Dive have said there’s been an uptick in startup financings, too.

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