Eir Ventures Partners AB, a Stockholm, Sweden- and Copenhagen, Denmark-based life science venture capital firm, closed its fund Eir Ventures I AB, at EUR 122.3m.
Launched in 2020 with support from a strong investor syndicate comprising the European Investment Fund (EIF), Novo Holdings, Saminvest, Vækstfonden, as well as a group of prominent Nordic universities, family offices and the founding partners of the firm, and later backed by Sustainable Development Umbrella Fund (SDUF) and additional renowned family offices, Eir Ventures I AB is a dedicated life sciences venture capital fund which invests in innovative life science companies with products and technologies addressing significant unmet medical needs.
Eir Ventures is dedicated to seizing high return potential opportunities in the Nordics, and has a targeted focus on innovations originating from the leading universities and incubators in the region with which it has established close collaborations. The Nordic region is home to the two highest ranked medical academic institutions in the European Union, the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and the Copenhagen University in Denmark.
Since its launch, Eir Ventures has participated in nine investments, including:
- Pretzel Therapeutics, a company developing treatments to address the genetic roots of mitochondrial dysfunction (Karolinska Institutet and Gothenburg University);
- ArgusEye, developing new first-in-class sensor technologies for biological production (Linköping University);
- ISD Immunotech, an innovative biotech start-up developing first-in-class therapeutics for treatment of severe systemic lupus erythematosus (Aarhus University);
- One-carbon Tx, a biotech company developing novel anticancer treatments (Karolinska Institutet); Sacra Therapeutics, a company developing pioneering therapies based on RNA epigenetics (Lund University);
- Sortina Pharma, developing new first-in-class therapies for treatment of aggressive cancers such as triple negative breast cancer (Gothenburg University), and
- biotech company Synklino, which is developing a first-in-class breakthrough treatment to eliminate cytomegalovirus (CMV) infections in the transplant setting (Copenhagen University).
Other noteworthy financings the fund has been part of, include one of the largest private financing rounds in a Scandinavian biotech – IO Biotech, a company founded by leading clinical researchers at Herlev Hospital in Denmark, a University hospital associated with Copenhagen University, developing novel, immune-modulating cancer therapies, that raised $115.1m on the US Nasdaq in October this year. Eir Ventures also co-led in September 2020 the $64 million crossover round of Galecto, a company whose science originated at the University of Lund and is developing novel small molecule therapeutics for inflammation and cancer. Galecto went on to raise $85 million in a successful US Nasdaq IPO the following month.
The fund expects to announce several further investments in the coming months.
The firm is led by Stephan Christgau PhD, Founding Partner, and Dr Magnus Persson MD PhD, Founding Partner and Chairman of Eir Ventures.
FinSMEs
13/12/2021