Fountain Healthcare Partners announced the initial closing of its second fund, Fountain Healthcare Partners Fund II, with €85 million ($100.2 million) of committed capital.

The fund is a dedicated life science venture capital fund and brings Fountain’s total capital under management to €158 million ($186 million). Within the life science sector, Fund II will primarily focus on specialty pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, medical devices and diagnostics.

Fountain will invest over 75% of its capital in Europe with the balance in the U.S. market. Having exceeded its initial close target, Fountain is now seeking additional investors to close Fund II with a hard cap of €125 million.

Over 90% of the initial €85 million capital raised was sourced from major domestic and international institutional investors, predominantly fund of funds, sovereign funds, pension funds and a strategic corporate investor.

Fund II is expected to make 10 to 15 investments and has already completed two deals

Chrono Therapeutics, developing a novel, digital transdermal drug delivery platform coupled with real-time behavioral support with initial focus on a next generation smoking cessation therapy; and,
Innocoll, a Phase III clinical stage specialty pharma company developing products for the treatment of post-operative pain, diabetic foot infections and surgical adhesions.

Dr. Manus Rogan, co-founder and managing partner at Fountain, commented, “Fountain’s investment strategy focuses on building a balanced portfolio of companies with complementary risk and return profiles within the life science sector. This strategy has resulted in both strong absolute and relative returns from our first fund. The performance of our first fund is reflected in both the level and quality of new and existing investor participation in Fund II. With €85 million raised we are also pleased to have exceeded our initial close target of €75 million against a widely accepted challenging fundraising backdrop in the venture capital sector.”

Aidan King, co-founder and managing partner at Fountain, added, “The life science sector has been one of the best performing sectors in the past two years with returns surpassing the major global indices and a record number of IPOs and public offerings. Strong demand for life science investments is a reflection of investor’s belief in the underlying growth dynamics of the sector and the investment return opportunities presented by innovative life science companies.”

Fountain Healthcare Partners is a life science venture capital fund with offices in Dublin and New York.