GHENT, Belgium– Novalis Biotech, an early stage venture capital investor in technologies to revolutionize healthcare, announced today the successful first closing of its second fund, Novalis Biotech Acceleration, raising an initial €8 million. With commitments for a similar amount already in place, Novalis anticipates a final closing in early 2021. The majority of investors in Novalis’ first fund have co-invested in this first closing.
“We have already doubled our first fund in this closing and with the commitments in place we are almost fully subscribed to reach our goal of €25 million. With the addition of a couple new investors, we remain on track to fully close the Acceleration Fund in early 2021,” said Jan Van den Berghe, co-founder of Novalis.
For the Novalis Acceleration Fund, investments will be split between approximately 10 early stage incubation projects and about 10 acceleration projects, where the investment in each company is larger. Two initial investments have been identified and will close in the near future.
Novalis’ investment strategy creates a unique ecosystem for healthcare start-ups based on solid foundations of strong scientific and business expertise. The company provides hands-on support for start-ups, allowing an idea to be built into a successful company. In today’s disruptive world of new technologies in healthcare like genomics, bioinformatics, diagnostics, personalized medicine, Novalis’ vision is to bring better healthcare for patients.
Novalis invests early and focuses on capital light ideas, where a relatively small investment can create significant value through the use of software, IP, tools, and other technology that can serve and benefit healthcare. Leveraging extensive academic networks, Novalis translates innovation to viable companies that able to deliver on the founding scientific promise.
“Our investment strategy for Fund 1 was very successful. Each company brings a unique perspective to healthcare, many of which are based on our own ideas,” said Wim van Criekinge. “We will continue this strategy into the Acceleration Fund as well as look at companies where our investment will drive process. There are already a number of companies we have identified for investment as well as plans to incubate a further company based on our internal assessments.”
Novalis Fund 1 totalled €4 million that was deployed into eight companies, mostly in the Benelux region, which focused on genomics, bioinformatics and digital health. These include BioLizard, Cergentis, Enzyre, Epify, Fertiga, myNEO and OHMX.bio. Geographically, the exception was its investment in doc.ai, a digital health company based in the U.S. For Fund 2, Novalis will expand to other areas in Europe and make additional investments in the U.S.
