Utimco utilises $234m life sciences fund

Utimco, a joint investment company of University of Texas and Texas A&M University, today backed a €210m ($234m) life sciences fund raised by Germany-based venture firm Wellington Partners.
Wellington Partners Life Science Fund (WPLS) V also secured contributions from business-to-business insurer Talanx, German state-owned investment unit KfW Capital and the EU-owned European Investment Fund (EIF) and European Investment Bank.
Several undisclosed family offices and trusts, which had backed previous Wellington funds, also committed capital.
WPLS-V will back between 15 and 20 companies in segments such as biotech, therapeutics and medical devices. The fund will mainly target German-speaking countries, with potential select investments in North America and Asia.
Wellington Partners is stage-agnostic and typically invests between $2.3m and $22.3m in each portfolio company. The firm has backed 46 life sciences businesses to date.
Its exits include the acquisition of Rigontec, a Germany-based RNA therapeutics spinout of University of Bonn, by pharmaceutical firm Merck & Co for $554m in 2017. Rigontec’s backers also included pharmaceutical firm Boehringer Ingelheim.

Regina Hodits, managing partner of Wellington, said: “The successful final close for Wellington Partners Life Science Fund V at €210m, more than double the size of our previous fund, is testament to investor appetite for our specialist investment strategy and to our team’s unrivalled experience and long-standing track record in European life science investing.

“We are seeing clear opportunities for superior returns from investing in pioneering European life sciences companies. Given the world-leading innovation ecosystem in Europe, particularly in the German-speaking region, paired with a scarcity of qualified financial investors operating in the European life science arena, we have already identified significant opportunities for WPLS-V.”