European VC firm Kurma Partners has unveiled its latest biotech fund, with 140 million euros ($154 million) raised so far and three biotech beneficiaries already named.
Kurma plans to raise a total of 250 million euros ($276 million) for the fund, dubbed Biofund IV, which would make it the firm’s largest VC fund to date. Between 16 and 20 biotechs are likely to benefit from the fund—with three companies having received investments so far.
Having raised 140 million euros by the fund’s first close, Kurma explained that it has already used money from the fund to participate in the $70 million series A of German autoimmune disease biotech SciRhom in July as well as the 20 million euro ($22 million) top-up to BK polyomavirus-focused Memo Therapeutics’ series A in May. Kurma has also invested in Dutch immunotherapeutics company Avidicure.
While remaining “thematically agnostic,” Kurma said the new fund “will be dedicated to companies developing innovative therapeutics, aiming for a balanced, risk-managed strategy, with investments for company creation as well as in established venture-stage companies.”
“Access to exceptional science and the best industry capabilities is at the heart of what we do,” Kurma’s co-founder and managing director, Thierry Laugel, said in an Oct. 3 release. “Bridging academia, industry and fellow investors, we work to positively impact Europe’s health innovation ecosystem and human health on a global scale.”
The latest fund has received money from the likes of French private equity firm Eurazeo—of which Kurma is a part—French public sector investment bank Bpifrance and Australian pharma CSL.
“Europe is a rich source of scientific innovation and CSL recognizes the European biotech ecosystem as a powerhouse for scientific discovery,” CSL’s chief scientific officer Andrew Nash, Ph.D., said in the release.
Kurma’s first couple of biofunds clocked in at 51 million euros and 55 million euros, respectively, before the firm ramped up the size of its Biofund III to 160 million euros ($177 million). That fund closed in 2020 and allowed the VC shop to branch out a little into later-stage rounds such as AM-Pharma’s series C.
Kurma, which is spread across offices in Paris and Munich, name-checked the buyout of endocrine disease-focused Amolyt Pharma by AstraZeneca for $800 million in March and Eli Lilly’s acquisition of antibody-drug conjugate company Emergence Therapeutics last year as “exemplify[ing] the value created by Kurma’s active engagement and collaboration with portfolio companies” from its third fund.
It’s been a hot few weeks in biotech investment, with Bain Capital Life Sciences and Arch Venture Partners both announcing biotech- and healthcare-focused VC funds of around $3 billion, while this week Frazier Life Sciences sourced a further $630 million for its fund focused on small and mid-cap biotechs.