Max Planck applies to $66.4m fund

Max Planck Foundation, the charitable investment vehicle for research institute association Max Planck Society, backed the initial €60m ($66.4m) close for an academia-focused pharmaceuticals venture fund raised by Khanu Management on Thursday.
Khan Technology Transfer Fund I (Khan-I) also secured commitments from economic development bank Austria Wirtschaftsservice and the EU-owned European Investment Fund (EIF).
EIF’s contribution of up to $33.2m will be provided through its Innovfin Equity Facility for Early Stage vehicle, with support from the European Fund for Strategic Investments.
Khan-I targets university-based drug programs from Germany and Austria in areas with unmet medical need structured as either spinouts or as collaboration agreements.
The fund will source research for its pipeline through a bespoke scouting unit named Wings4Innovation, and will offer drug discovery services to its portfolio from the Max Planck and Khanu Management-aligned incubator Lead Discovery Center (LDC).
Bert Klebl, managing director at Khanu Management and at LDC, said: “With Khan-I, we have realised a unique and powerful translational vehicle, combining successful players in the field.
“The line-up of the co-investors is both an acknowledgement of the professional and successful performance in the past decade, where we opened a new chapter in the book of German translational research with the inception of LDC and its collaborative drug discovery and development approach as well as confidence in the game-changing capabilities of this unique translational concept.”