Kurma Partners collects 33 mln euros for European diagnostics venture fund

Kurma Partners has raised 33 million euros for its latest venture fund Kurma Diagnostics. The fund’s backers are The European Investment Fund, Fonds National d’Amorçage, Institut Pasteur and BNP Paribas. KDx focuses on investing in early-stage European diagnostic companies and ventures.

PRESS RELEASE

Kurma Partners announces the launch of its third fund Kurma Diagnostics (KDx). The European Investment Fund (EIF), Fonds National d’Amorçage (FNA) managed by Bpifrance as part of the French government’s Investments for the future (“Investissements d’Avenir”) program, Institut Pasteur, and BNP Paribas are participating in the first closing (€33M).

Kurma Diagnostics: the first Venture Capital fund dedicated to financing early-stage European innovative Diagnostic projects and companies.
Initiated in partnership with Institut Pasteur, and true to its origins, Kurma Partners (Kurma) has created a new fund that is unique and founded on the strong performance of past investment experiences.

The new fund supported by the European Investment Fund, Fonds National d’Amorçage, Institut Pasteur, and BNP Paribas, will benefit from the extensive network of European clinical and academic research institutes that has been cultivated over the past six years. KDx will follow with the Kurma’s expertise of investing in an asset-centric manner, which provides efficiency for portfolio risk mitigation and maximizes return.

To date, Kurma has made investments across Europe via two funds, in therapeutics, devices, and diagnostics companies, and has demonstrated its value as a financial and commercially oriented partner to manage the growth of a diverse range of life science investments. Investments have covered the full development spectrum from early (company creation) projects right the way through to growth capital opportunities.

Kurma Diagnostics: a venture accelerator fund dedicated to diagnostics, patient monitoring and e-Health.

KDx has a dedicated team that is completely focused on the sector. The fund will look at the full scope of diagnostic opportunities; from imaging systems, software, sample collection and management, biomarkers all the way through to platform technologies and e-health systems.

The diagnostic space is rapidly growing and evolving, creating both challenges and opportunities. Several key elements must be appreciated and understood in order to appreciate this evolution:

Personalized Medicine is making precision diagnostic tools the mainstay in a growing number of indications and for treatment selection,
Big Pharma have embraced the Companion Diagnostics movement both for improved efficacy and reimbursement argumentation,
Big data analysis, e-Health and emergent technologies are all playing a critical role in the creation of the “linked-in patient” that can be carefully monitored,
A growing emphasis on reducing costs and treatment waste is leading to a greater reliance on diagnostic tools to assure diagnosis accuracy and speed.
Given the specific scientific, regulatory and industrial characteristics of the Diagnostics domain, KDx is nurturing an ecosystem of skills and expertise around the fund. This ecosystem is aimed at both identifying the best opportunities, as well as providing an environment for KDx investments to develop and flourish. The fund is constantly seeking new opportunities and to strengthen its network.
A key feature of the fund will be its ability to seed fund projects at pre-industrialization stage within a 12-24 month period, and incorporate them into a specifically designed accelerator during this early phase.

Kurma Diagnostic: a precision approach
Kurma Diagnostic’s first closing finds several well-known names with respect to both Investment and Scientific domains: European Investment Fund (EIF), Fonds National d’Amorçage (FNA), managed by Bpifrance as part of the French government’s Investments for the future (“Investissements d’Avenir”) program, Institut Pasteur, BNP Paribas.

About Kurma Partners
Founded in July 2009, Kurma Partners is a key European player in venture capital, development capital and technology transfer in the field of life sciences (biotechnologies, pharmaceuticals, medical device and diagnostic platforms), notably through Kurma Biofund I (€51M) & Kurma Biofund II (€75M), and strategic partnerships with forefront European biotechnology medical research centres.