Europe: TechBio Investors (3rd part)
Europe: TechBio Investors (3rd part)
MetaphysicalCells: A newsletter about Science, Technology and AI Drug Discovery
For the first and second part of this newsletter:
βAt a deep level all things in our Universe are ineffably interdependent and interconnected, as we are part of the Matryoshka-like mathematical object of emergent levels of complexity where consciousness pervades all levels.β
By Alex M. Vikoulov, The Syntellect Hypothesis: Five Paradigms of the Mind's Evolution
Table of Contents
Speedinvest (Austria)
Verdane Investment Firm (Norway)
Kurma Partners (France)
Humminbird (EU/US)
Jeito Capital (France)
High-Tech GrΓΌnderfonds (HTGF) (Germany)
Verve Ventures (Europe)
Holtzbrinck Digital (Germany)
β΄οΈ Speedinvest
Speedinvest born in Austria, is a venture capital fund based in Berlin, London, Munich, Paris and Vienna with more than β¬1B to invest in pre-Seed, Seed and early-stage tech startups across Europe. Their typical first check is β¬700K - β¬1.3M and they aim for double digit ownership. In pre-Seed deals, they invest up to β¬1M and in Seed up to β¬3M. They have six dedicated sector-focused investment teams, which are Deep Tech, Fintech, Health &Β TechBio, Climate Tech &Β Industrial Tech, Marketplaces & Consumer and SaaS &Β Infra. They also combine the expertise of investors from across their sector-focused teams to collaboratively fund next-generation Crypto and Emerging Markets startups. They invest in Europe, from Ukraine to Ireland and Estonia to Greece. They invest into:
π Seqera Labs is a bioinformatics company developing technologies for data pipelines, founded in 2018 in Barcelona. It is a spin-off of the Centre for Genomic Regulation founded by Evan Floden and Paolo di Tommaso and its services are largely related to the open-source software Nextflow (for writing data pipeline workflows) that was released in 2013. Nextflow is an excellent solution for many ML-based scenarios: 1) for continuously (and automatically) retraining your models based on rapidly-changing datasets from external sources such as sequencers, 2) for training and inference resources sporadically where you face constraints getting GPUs or FPGAs β even for short periods and 3) often pipelines like nf-core/proteinfold have compute and data-intensive inference steps where many samples need to be processed in parallel. These kinds of challenges can be addressed using Nextflow and the Seqera Platform integrated with AWS. In 2023, Seqera Labs (a government-owned company) and Genomics England announced a partnership aimed at advancing genomic research analysis. Other partners apart from AWS are Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure.
Seqera Labs has raised a total funding of $27.2M.
MiLaboratories (Latvia) is the leader in immunome data analysis software with the flagship product MiXCR, a top-notch solution to analyze immunology next generation sequencing data (in vaccine development, CAR-T therapies, antibody discovery and other areas) and is part of the Platforma Bio (a UI-first computational biology for biologists). Platforma Bio simplifies data analysis, converting complex tasks into user-friendly blocks for effortless biological analysis. On April 29, 2024, Miltenyi Biotec, a global pioneer in biotechnology, and MiLaboratories announced a landmark partnership combining MiLaboratories' cutting-edge RNA kit technology for immune sequencing with Miltenyi Biotec's robust production and commercialization capabilities. MiLaboratories has raised $2.36M. The money was raised from investors including Speedinvest and Acrobator Ventures.
π Orakl Oncology (France) partners with the oncology industry to meet the challenge of personalized medicine. They match their tumor models with detailed clinical and omics data and this provides the necessary context to interpret biological results. Then they gather unique insights by mining multi-modal experimental data and combining it with deep patient data (AI powered analysis). On October 4, 2023, Orakl Oncology raised β¬3M to develop its techbio platform and the investment round was led by Speedinvest with additional investment from HCVC and Verve Ventures.
β΄οΈ Verdane Investment Firm
Verdane based in Oslo is a specialist growth investment firm that partners with tech-enabled and sustainable European businesses. Verdane can invest as a minority or majority investor, either in single companies or through portfolios of companies, and looks to deploy inside two core growth themes; digitalisation and decarbonisation.
Verdane funds hold over β¬5.7 billion in total commitments and has made over 300 investments in fast-growing businesses since 2003. Verdaneβs team of over 140 investment professionals and operating experts, based out of Berlin, Munich, Copenhagen, Helsinki, London, Oslo and Stockholm, is dedicated to being the preferred growth partner to tech-enabled and sustainable businesses in Europe. The firm has just successfully closed its newest fund Edda III at β¬1.1 billion doubling its predecessor fund, and invests into π:
π ams (year of exit 2014) makes sensor solutions that make devices smarter, safer, convenient and more environment-friendly. They offer sensors (including optical sensors), interfaces and related software for consumer, communications, industrial, medical and automotive markets. In 2020 ams AG acquired the German lighting, LED and opto-semiconductor manufacturer OSRAM. Now, ams OSRAM (VIE: AMS) is creating novel generations of light emitting, sensing and signal processing products that unlock new algorithmic approaches for innovative medical and health platforms. Cutting-edge CT and X-ray sensor arrays, vital signs sensors, temperature sensors and more are enabling advanced non-invasive diagnostics and therapies to improve health and wellness. In this context ams OSRAM delivers innovative technology that enable healthcare to be accurate, remote, affordable and personalized. For example, the pioneering ams OSRAM NanEye series has the smallest camera modules available with fully digital output, offering broader applications for medical endoscopes.
π AquaGen (Norway) is a breeding company which develops, produces and delivers genetic material 𧬠to the global aquaculture π farming industry. Through market-oriented research and development AquaGen has achieved a leading position as a provider of fertilized eggs of Atlantic salmon and rainbow trout.
β΄οΈ Kurma Partners
Kurma Partners is a key European venture capital group specialized in healthcare, with β¬470M under management, with two dedicated franchises : Kurma Biofund focused on therapeutic (current active fund KBIII) and Kurma Diagnostics focused on diagnostic and digital health (current active fund Kurma Dx2). Since 2009, 60 companies were financed, 24 companies were founded, 800 employees in companies were financed for a total of β¬730M under management.Β Their latest investment fund is dedicated to Growth Capital investments for both therapeutic and non-therapeutic solutions in high unmet need diseases (β¬160M fundraising ongoing). They aim to invest into SMEs raising growth capital through late-stage, crossover and / or public rounds of finance in the field of therapeutics, diagnostics and HealthTech as well as opportunistically in medical devices (MedTech). Majority focus in EU countries and also into existing portfolio companies of Kurma Biofund/ Diagnostic Funds. They invest into:
π Bioserenity is offering a brain monitoring and remote diagnostics. Their medical devices (AI and software) help the hospitals perform Electroencephalograms (EEGs) and diagnose sleep disorders. In particular, Neuronaute+ (CE and FDA cleared)Β enables you to receive data from various EEG Caps, like the BioSerenity IceCap (a disposable EEG net available in 5 sizes from neonate to adult that you can setup in 10 minutes for hospital or home use). Once received the data, you can check the EEGs on the tablet app (Neuronaute Mobile Application for Android) and send it to BioSerenityβs Cloud to get a pre-scoring and request a Neurologist to interpret it (the Neurophy service is available only in France). BioSerenity has raised a total funding of $121M over 4 rounds.Β
π Raidium in France offers a foundation model for precision medicine in radiology. Radium has raised a total of $2.3M in funding over 2 rounds. And Arkhn, always in France, supports healthcare facilities in the long-term management and valorization of their health data, to the benefit of the entire ecosystem.