Angelini Ventures and the European Investment Bank will back up to 10 startups over the next six years as they look to boost Europe's healthtech sector.
Italian pharmaceutical firm Angelini’s corporate venture capital arm has signed the first deal between a CVC unit and the European Investment Bank (EIB), a €150m ($175m) partnership that will invest in European healthtech startups.
Angelini Ventures and the EIB have each committed €75m and will distribute it across seven to 10 biotech, medical technology and digital health startups over the next six years. The co-investments will involve equal amounts from each side for every deal, and Angelini Ventures’ allocation is coming out of its existing €300m fund.
“For us, it’s a very important partnership for multiple reasons – from a purely financial point of view, we have more capital to deploy in Europe,” Paolo di Giorgio, Angelini Ventures’ CEO, told GCV. “It’s quite challenging for companies to raise capital, so this is going to be very impactful and important.”
European biotech and healthtech startups are dealing with a market where funding is simply harder to come by than in the boom years of 2020 or 2021 he added, especially for the larger rounds which the partnership is targeting.
“We did some analysis, in both biotech and healthtech, and it’s taking longer to get to the next stage compared to a few years ago,” he said. “I think the financial risk of running out of money is higher than before, and everybody is aware of that.”
The first deal the two are collaborating on is for Adcytherix, a French startup developing antibody drug conjugates to treat cancer. Angelini Ventures co-led its €105m series A round last month.
The partnership comes amidst a busy year for Angelini Ventures, which is especially excited about digital health services, connected medical devices and hybrid care models that combine physical care with digital services, di Giorgio says. It has backed 10 startups so far this year according to GCV data, all but one of which are based in Europe.
“There are opportunities, because there are a lot of gaps in the market, particularly in healthcare services. There is a need for more efficacious approaches, and to spare time for healthcare service personnel and providers, and also to have a data-driven approach to better measure, monitor and have better outcomes for patient and clinicians,” said di Giorgio.
“The need is there, approaches are growing, and some of them are already showing some good results in terms of outcome and also from a commercial and economic perspective.”
