Wellington Partners launch €210m Life Sciences fund

The Munich-based European venture capital heavyweight’s Life Science Fund V (€210m) is more than twice the size of its predecessor – the first closing of Life Science Fund IV took place at the end of 2012 with a volume of €70m, the final closing in 2013 resulted in a total of €85m. With €210m in the pot, Life Science Fund V is the largest life sciences fund set up by the company ever.

Rainer Strohmenger, Managing Partner at Wellington Partners, and his team want to expand Wellington’s portfolio by 15 to 20 companies, particularly in German-speaking Europe but also in Asia and the US as documented by Wellington’s first investment into Carisma Therapeutics Inc. Compared to Life Sciences Fund IV, Wellington wants to  refocusmore on biotechs: of its seven WPLS-V investments, five are  drug developers and one each in diagnostics and medtech. However, novel biotech platforms and  e-health businesses will be also considered.

Backed by exits from Rigontec, which was acquired from MSD for €115m upfront plus €349m in milestones – a 4-fold multiple of the company’s Series A financing – Strohmenger and Managing Partner Regina Hodits had no problems to find new investors: KfW Kapital, Talanx and UTIMCO, the A & M investment company of the University of Texas (USA). Additionally, a good part of existing investors confirmed their committment  – including several family offices and the European Investment Fund.

"We see clear opportunities for above-average returns through investments in pioneering European life sciences companies. Given the world’s leading innovation ecosystem in Europe, particularly in German-speaking countries, coupled with a lack of qualified financial investors in the European life sciences sector, we have already identified promising investment opportunities," said Hodits. She is cautiously optimistic about the development of the venture capital scene: "German institutional investors such as insurance companies are increasingly investing in venture capital funds including the life sciences and healthcare sectors, as evidenced by Talanx’s investment in our new funds."

Wellington Partners’ track-record include investments in Actelion (taken over by Johnson & Johnson in $30bn deal), Rigontec and Symetis (acquired by Boston Scientific in $435m cash transaction). Recent investments include Iomx Therapeutics in Martinsried, Sphingotec and Adrenomed in Hennigsdorf and Snipr Biome in Copenhagen.