Utrecht, The Netherlands – 16 December 2021 – Thuja Capital Management, an early stage life sciences investor, today announces the final close of its Thuja Capital Healthcare Fund III ("Fund III") at EUR 76M. Fund III is focused on investing in early stage companies that develop novel therapeutics, medical devices (including digital health) or nutraceuticals, based in the Netherlands, Belgium or Germany.
The European Investment Fund (EIF), ASR as well as several Dutch and Walloon regional investment agencies are part of a strong base of LPs supporting the fund. In addition, several universities and knowledge institutions, amongst which Sanquin, Utrecht University and UMC, Radboud UMC, Brightlands Maastricht, Delft Enterprises and KU Leuven have backed the fund.
The Fund will identify early stage investment opportunities, often still at an academic project/spin-off stage, and work actively with management to develop initial preclinical proof of concept and attract follow-on investment rounds, on its way to realize meaningful healthcare impact.
Fund III will build a portfolio of 10-12 investments, comprising promising and impactful Dutch, Belgian and German early-stage ventures. The fund has made three investments to date: Alesta Therapeutics (Leiden, The Netherlands), EsoBiotec (Gosselies, Belgium) and Pan Cancer T (Rotterdam, The Netherlands).
Harrold van Barlingen, Managing Partner and founder of Thuja, said:
We are very pleased with the closing of this new fund, which is more than double the size of our previous fund. It allows us to continue and accelerate our successful strategy of building life science companies and thus promote innovation to reach and benefit patients. We are now reinforcing our team to expand our reach and scale our successful model.
Michel Briejer, Managing Partner of Thuja, said:
We have expanded our network of academia and knowledge institutions within the framework of this new fund, are actively collaborating with these institutions. In this way we can access a rich source of innovation and at the same time provide support and advice to our counterparts, which is to the benefit of all involved. We are thrilled to have their vote of confidence and their contribution as an LP to the fund.
-ENDS-
For more information, please contact:
Harrold van Barlingen, Managing Partner, hvb@thujacapital
www.thujacapital.com
About Thuja
Thuja Capital Management (Thuja) is a dedicated life sciences venture capital firm with its office in Utrecht, The Netherlands. Thuja's team currently consists of 8 professionals (scaling to 10, of which 6 hold a PhD).
Thuja has been active as an early stage life sciences investor since 2008. Since then, it has operated several funds totaling in excess of EUR 125M under management. Since then, Thuja has been involved mostly as of the start, with various successful ventures, amongst which Argenx (market cap 16.5 Bn USD), Okapi Biosciences, NightBalance and MILabs. For the active portfolio we refer to our website. To date, Thuja invested in 25 life sciences companies.
Thuja is a signatory to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment. Besides financial objectives, Thuja selects investments that will positively affect the health and well-being of patients.
European Investment Fund
Participation of EIF in Fund III was structured through various mandates:
InnovFin Equity, with the financial backing of the European Union under Horizon 2020 Financial Instruments and the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) set up under the Investment Plan for Europe. The purpose of EFSI is to help support financing and implementing productive investments in the European Union and to ensure increased access to financing;
PanEuropean Guarantee Fund (EGF) implemented by the EIF with the financial support of the Participating Member States;
As fiduciary for the benefit and risk of Invest-NL Capital N.V.