Barcelona-based health and life science-focused VC Asabys Partners is announcing a €100m first close of its second fund.
It’s targeting a total of €200m — which it hopes to hit later this year — and will look to invest in startups with scientifically proven medical solutions.
The first close came a couple of months later than the VC predicted when it announced it was raising for its second fund back in September — which could be a sign of the tricky fundraising landscape VCs are faced with at present.
Where will the money be spent?
Asabys Partners will invest €2m-5m in 12-15 startups in the UK, Europe, Israel and the US. The firm says it will invest up to €15m in follow-on rounds.
Associate Maite Malet says the firm is particularly interested in investing in startups working on solutions in diagnostics and therapeutics segments like:
- Women's health
- Neurology
- Chronic diseases
- Oncology
- Cardiology
- Immunology
Where’s the money coming from?
As with Asabys Partners’ first fund — which it raised in 2018 — Spanish banking group Banco Sabadell is the main private institutional investor. Other investors include the European Investment Fund — which recently announced a €3.75bn scaleup fund of funds — and Alantra.
Asabys’s portfolio
Asabys Partners was founded by Josep Sanfeliu — one of Spain’s most active angel investors in 2021 — and Clara Campàs.
Since launching, the VC has backed 13 companies in the biopharma, medtech and digital health sectors and has around €217m assets-under-management, according to the firm. They include:
- Berlin-based gut health platform Cara Care, which raised $7m in June 2022.
- Iceland’s digital therapeutics startup Sidekick Health, which raised a $55m Series B in May 2022.
- Spanish startup Ona Therapeutics, which is developing novel therapies for metastatic cancer and raised €30m in June 2020.
- AgomAb Therapeutics, which is developing treatment to repair organ and tissue damage, raised a $40.5m Series B participated in by Pfizer.
