Europe’s imperative: Early-stage investors and company creation

Europe finally has a formidable pool of large venture funds with the financial capacity to scale mature biotechs to their fullest potential. Success stories are emerging with significant exits. Yet the European biotech ecosystem is still constrained. Financing at the beginning of the biotech life cycle – company creation, bridging academic concept to scalable potential – is still limited. Europe needs reinforcement at this stage.

Venture funds with the specialised skills to turn laboratory discoveries into fundable and scalable companies, are becoming niche. If this trend continues, opportunities will be lost as biotechs are not formed or are developed suboptimally and entrepreneurs will turn elsewhere to seek greener fields. Meanwhile, late-stage funds will see a dwindling pipeline of mature European companies in which to invest so their capital will be placed elsewhere. Achieving critical mass in early-stage investing must be prioritised to sustain the European biotech ecosystem and secure its growth.

The imperative for company building in Europe is strongly felt at Kurma Partners. Over successive funds and 25 company formations spanning 16 years, Kurma has learnt that building for the long term enables sustainable success. It takes time to earn trust and respect to underpin constructive partnerships with academia, to curate networks of experienced operators and to nurture first-time entrepreneurs to become tomorrow’s serial entrepreneurs.

Early-stage investing is challenging but funds are demonstrating that world-class returns are achievable in Europe. Examples include Amolyt Pharma and Imcheck Therapeutics, both backed from the beginning by Kurma in syndications, and joined later for scale, by peers in large European funds. Both were acquired, respectively by AstraZeneca and Ipsen, for potential values breaking the billion euro mark.

This message of success needs more resonance to inspire investment in early-stage funds. Sovereign funds and industry investors are key anchors with their strategic interests. We hope that they will strengthen their investments across Europe and that a broader pool of generalists will join. Strength in scale and diversity, will enable a greater European biotech sector. The blueprint for sustainable growth exists; it is imperative to accelerate it.

Amanda Gett-Chaperot, is a Partner at Kurma Partners. ­Dedicated to Kurma’s biotech funds, ­Amanda is an early-stage ­investor with a strong emphasis on Europe. She has been making investments in biotech since joining the Roche Venture Fund and later Seventure Partners. Earlier at Roche, she ­focussed on business development with biotechs and academia. ­Amanda holds a PhD in Immunology from the University of Sydney.

This article was originally published in European Biotechnology Magazine Summer 2026.