Inveready launches €7-millions biotechnology fund

By Biocat

Inveready, one of the main venture capital groups focusing on early-stage investment in Spain, has created their fourth business to invest in biotechnology companies. Inveready Biotech II, which has an initial endowment of €7 millions, will fund between 15 and 20 projects over the coming three years. The aim is to invest in companies with a pipeline of products in development and that will begin clinical trials in no more than twelve months, in the case of drugs. They will also study projects for nutrition and molecular and genetic diagnostics.

"The model is to identify companies that hold intellectual property rights on cutting-edge technology, with a clearly commercial focus,” explains Josep M. Echarri, CEO of Inveready’s consultancy firm. The new company will be managed by Inveready Asset Management and has been registered at the Trade Registry with authorization from the CNMV.

Fifty percent of the partners participating in Inveready Biotech II are investors from other funds managed by Inveready, family offices from around Spain and business angels with experience in the biotech sector like Antonio Parente, who in 2012 sold Lipotec and is currently president of the CataloniaBIO employers’ association. Other partners in the company include Reig Jofré, AB-Biotics and the Catalan Finance Institute.

To support the process through which new investment opportunities are selected, Inveready has forged a strategic collaboration agreement with Advinus, one of the Contract Research Organizations (CRO) specializing in the preclinical stages from the Indian group Tata.

The first investment was in Althia, for €800,000, to complete a capital increase of €3 millions, which will go to activate the company’s area for treatment using single-dose image-guided radiotherapy.

With this new fund, the Inveready group now manages €45 millions in technology companies.