Sofinnova raises €1.2bn to back 'up to 60' companies
Antoine Papiernik, chairman and managing partner at Sofinnova Partners.
European life sciences venture capital company Sofinnova Partners has raised €1.2 billion ($1.27 billion) in funding that it says could support 50 to 60 new companies.
The investment was raised over the last year, with more than €1 billion coming in the last three months of 2024 alone, and takes the funds under its management to more than €4 billion across the biopharma, medtech, industrial biotech, and digital medicine categories.
Antoine Papiernik, Sofinnova's chairman and managing Partner, said the new funding will empower "a new wave of entrepreneurs tackling some of the world's most pressing health and sustainability challenge."
The Paris-based VC – which has already provided funding to around 500 companies since it was formed in the early 1970s – said that specific details of the individual funds will be disclosed upon their final closings. Institutional investors, sovereign wealth funds, corporates, and family offices have provided the investment, which it said has "solidified" its position in the sectors it covers.
The scale of Sofinnova's fundraising in such a short period of time is unprecedented and could reflect rising increasing investor confidence and understanding of the life sciences sector, which Papiernik described earlier this year in an interview with Private Equity Magazine as a "multi-faceted haven of resilience," amid megatrends like ageing populations and rapid scientific advancements.
The positive signal comes after Papiernik also predicted a resurgence for biotech on the Nasdaq, fuelled by competition among big pharma's appetite for the most promising assets and rising levels of M&A activity. The company makes most of its investments in Europe, but also targets companies in the US and is now looking towards Asia, particularly China.
Other European-oriented VCs that have announced new funds in the last few months include Abingworth, Forbion, Kurma Partners, and Earlybird.
Sofinnova broadened its scope two years ago to include digital medicine for the first time, saying it was the first VC to do so in Europe, and closed a $200 million round for that sector a few months later. In 2023, it also launched Sofinnova AI, which deploys machine learning and data analytics to inform its investment decision-making.
The VC currently has a team of 80, including 25 investment partners, operating across three European offices in Paris, London, and Milan.
