Scandinavia-based Sound Bioventures, a VC fund investing in about-to-be clinical or clinical stage private companies in Europe and US developing therapies in specialty therapeutics areas, announced the first close of its first fund at €110M.
The funding came from Novo Holdings, Saminvest, Vækstfonden, the European Investment Fund (EIF) and Ramsbury Invest, as well as the founders.
The EIF investment was made possible under the European Guarantee Fund. The European Guarantee Fund (EGF) was set up by the EIB Group with contributions from Sweden and other EU Member States to support companies suffering from the COVID-19 crisis.
Using nearly €25B in guarantees, the EGF enables the EIB and the EIF to make loans, guarantees, asset-backed securities, equity and other financial instruments available to mostly SMEs. The EGF is part of the European Union’s recovery package aiming to provide a total of €540B to boost those parts of the EU economy that have been hit the worst by the Covid-19 pandemic.
What to expect from the fund?
This first fund will focus on investing in European and US-based private biotech companies with assets in clinical or about-to-be-clinical stages in primarily orphan and rare diseases. The fund also intends to leverage Scandinavian science to build companies and facilitate cross-Atlantic exchange of innovation, sector knowledge and capital.
Alain Godard, Chief Executive at the European Investment Fund, says, “This EIF investment reflects the importance of supporting innovative players in this sector. Sound Bioventures has a strong founding team and the fund will be well-positioned to find and further develop companies that solve tomorrow’s health challenges.”
The fund will be managed by a founding team with venture investing and operational experience in drug development. They include Casper Breum, Johan Kördel, and Bibhash Mukhopadhyay. Casper has a back-ground from Novo Nordisk, Lundbeck and Lundbeckfonden Ventures, Johan from Pharmacia, Biovitrum and Lundbeckfonden Ventures, and Bibhash from J&J, Astra-Zeneca and NEA.
About Sound Bioventures
Sound Bioventures is a clinical-stage biotherapeutics-focused venture fund that has a foundation in the Nordic biotech ecosystem and will invest in the EU, UK, and the US. The firm’s Fund I AB is a registered alternative investment fund under the Swedish Alternative Investment Funds Managers Act. The target size for the fund is €150M.
The fund will seek opportunities to address significant unmet medical needs for new therapies. To date, the firm has made over 30 investments, many of which were in clinical stage rare/orphan disease companies.