Microbiome innovation wins multi-million euro investment
Seventure Partners, a European leader in financing innovation, has announced that the technical committee of the French government initiative, which was set up to support financing of technology companies, has approved its Health for Life Capital II fund as the first and only microbiome-focused fund.
As part of the initiative, French institutional investors have committed to devote over €5 billion to the financing of innovative companies by December 31, 2022. The objective is to help these innovative players to become regional, or even global organisations, while creating specific expertise for selected fields within the French ecosystem.
Seventure’s Health for Life Capital fund (HFL 2) is the world's co-leading and Europe’s leading investment fund specialising in the field of the microbiome, bringing together a team of 12 life science investors and eight operating experts in five European offices.
Continuing its successful “beyond the pill” investment strategy, HFL 2 primarily invests in areas related to the microbiota revolution, including platforms, drugs, nutritional solutions, diagnostics, and biomarkers. In addition, the fund makes one-off investments in digital therapeutics, connected and digital health solutions, personalised nutrition, personalised medicine and foodtech.
The HFL funds invest in all stages (seed, venture, and significantly in growth capital), to date with around twenty innovative portfolio companies of an average ticket size of €15M, in one to three successive financing rounds. The funds target start-ups and more established innovative SMEs with a turnover of around €50M from all over the world, with particular focus on Europe, North America, Israel and Asia.
Seventure announced the first closing of HFL 2 at €100 million last year, while the final target of €200 million has already been exceeded. It is expected to close in November 2020 but is still open to professional investors until that date.
“Both HFL funds work with investors in all geographies, including family offices, prestigious industrial investors, such as Danone, Novartis, Lesaffre, Bel, as well as financial institutions, such as Bpifrance," said Isabelle de Crémoux, CEO and Managing Partner at Seventure Partners.
“Thanks to this strategy, we have seen over 1500 opportunities each year, ensuring a steady deal flow. We are delighted that the HFL 2 fund has already made five investments, including Axial, Galecto, Citryll and BCD.”
The HFL funds also allow co-investment with international financial and corporate players such as Novartis, Takeda, JNJ, Lundbeck, BMS, Nestlé, Kellogg’s, Tyson, Bunge and more with interest in the link between the microbiome, the food and health.
"The gut is home to a large number of bacteria, with 150 times more genes found here than the whole human genome. Everyone has a unique microbiome. Recent studies have shown the link between the alteration of the intestinal microbiome and metabolic pathologies, such as inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), diabetes, obesity, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, autism, depression, many cancers, cardiovascular, immune or autoimmune diseases - multiple sclerosis, asthma, food allergies-, as well as other common and chronic pathologies. This is a field as fascinating as it is promising, constituting the medical revolution of the 21st century," she added.
Seventure’s HFL funds
Since the launch of HFL I in 2014, Seventure Partners is today a recognised as a world pioneer of the microbiome revolution in the health and nutrition sectors.
HFL has built an innovative international portfolio with investments in around twenty cutting-edge companies, such as Enterome, Vedanta Biosciences, MaaT Pharma, Eligo Bioscience, LNC Therapeutics, TargEDys, A-mansia Biotech, BiomX, Microbiotica, Anaeropharma, LiMM Therapeutics , Siolta Therapeutics, Daytwo, Zipongo, Mdoloris Medical Systems, MycoTechnology or more. The first exit was made in 2017 with the sale of Cambrooke. HFL II will invest in a similar number of companies, with a global geography, but focus on Europe.
