Life sciences-focused venture firm Kurma Partners has secured Pasteur Institute for a third fund dedicated to early and incubation-stage therapeutics companies.
Venture capital firm Kurma Partners has achieved an oversubscribed €160m ($175m) close for its third therapeutics-focused fund with limited partners including research organisation Pasteur Institute.
The close also includes state-owned investment bank Bpifrance and its Investissements d’Avenir scheme, as well as the EU-owned European Investment Fund (EIF), German regional public development bank NRW.Bank, pharmaceutical developer Servier Laboratories and VC firm Idinvest Partners.
Kurma Biofund III will typically invest $10.9m per deal, aiming to assemble a 12 to 15-strong portfolio comprising mainly early-stage companies.
The fund has already helped launch five biotech companies across France, Germany and Belgium. It has also participated in three funding rounds, including a series C for acute kidney injury drug developer AM-Pharma that raised $182m following a $130m first close.
Kurma’s first biofund debuted in 2010 with around $73.1m from unnamed investors, followed by a $58.2m vehicle in 2013 backed by pharmaceutical firm GlaxoSmithKline, Idinvest Partners, New Enterprise Associates and Bpifrance’s CDC Enterprise unit.
Kurma Partners also closed a $35.9m fund dedicated to health diagnostics in 2015 with contributions from both Institut Pasteur and EIF in addition to financial services firm BNP Paribas and Fonds national d’amorçage, a fund-of-funds managed by Bpifrance.