Investors
AAVantgarde was co-founded by Professor Alberto Auricchio and originated from the research activities carried out at Tigem (Telethon Institute of Genetics and Medicine) in Naples, Italy, and supported by Sofinnova Partners who participated in a seed round in June 2021.
This was followed in June 2023 by a €61 Million Series A Financing co led by Atlas Venture and Forbion, with participation from the Company’s founding investors, Sofinnova Telethon fund and Longwood Fund.
Sofinnova Partners
Sofinnova Partners is a leading European venture capital firm in life sciences, specializing in healthcare and sustainability. Based in Paris, London and Milan, the firm brings together a team of professionals from all over the world with strong scientific, medical and business expertise.
Sofinnova Partners is a hands-on company builder across the entire value chain of life sciences investments, from seed to later-stage. The firm actively partners with ambitious entrepreneurs as a lead or cornerstone investor to develop transformative innovations that have the potential to positively impact our collective future.
Founded in 1972, Sofinnova Partners is a deeply established venture capital firm in Europe, with 50 years of experience backing over 500 companies and creating market leaders around the globe. Today, Sofinnova Partners has over €2.5 billion under management.
Atlas Venture
Atlas Venture is a leading biotech venture capital firm. With the goal of doing well by doing good, we have been building breakthrough biotech startups for over 25 years. We work side by side with exceptional scientists and entrepreneurs to translate high impact science into medicines for patients.
Our seed-led venture creation strategy rigorously selects and focuses investment on the most compelling opportunities to build scalable businesses and realize value.
Forbion
Forbion is a dedicated life sciences venture capital firm with offices in The Netherlands, Germany and Singapore. Forbion invests in life sciences companies that are active in the (bio-) pharmaceutical space.
Forbion manages €3 billion across multiple fund strategies that cover all stages of (bio-) pharmaceutical drug development. Forbion’s current team consists of over 30 life sciences investment professionals that have built an impressive performance track record since the late nineties with investments in 95 companies across 8 funds.
Forbion’s record of sourcing, building and guiding life sciences companies has resulted in many breakthrough therapies and valuable exits. Portfolio company successes include NewAmsterdam Pharma (NASDAQ: NAMS), Gyroscope (acquired by Novartis) and Replimune (NASDAQ: REPL).
Besides financial objectives, Forbion selects investments that will positively affect the health and well-being of patients. The firm is a signatory to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment. Forbion operates a joint venture with BGV, the manager of seed and early-stage funds, especially focused on Benelux and Germany.
Fondazione Telethon and TIGEM
Fondazione Telethon (the Telethon Foundation) is a major biomedical charity in Italy whose mission is to advance biomedical research to cure rare genetic diseases.
Throughout its 32 years of activity, Fondazione Telethon has invested almost €600 million in funding over 2,700 projects to study 580 diseases, involving more than 1,600 researchers in Italy.
As part of its goal to foster development and maximize the therapeutic impact of research, Fondazione Telethon further pursues cooperation with academia, industry, and venture capital through the creation of partnerships and start-ups.
TIGEM is a Telethon Foundation research centre in Pozzuoli, near Naples, and comprises several research groups and over 200 staff members, all dedicated to understanding the molecular mechanisms behind rare genetic diseases and developing novel treatments.
Longwood Fund
Longwood Fund is a venture capital firm dedicated to creating and investing in novel healthcare companies that develop important treatments to help patients while generating significant value for investors.
The Longwood team has a long history of successfully launching and building important life science companies while providing operational leadership and strategic guidance.
Collectively, the Partners at Longwood Fund have co-founded 24 companies with over 20 launched or marketed drugs and therapies, as well as over two dozen clinical stage assets, all focused on helping patients in need.
Companies founded by Longwood Fund, or its principals prior to the founding of the Firm, as lead investor and CEO/CBO include Acceleron, Momenta, Alnylam, Vertex, Sirtris, Vor, TScan, Pyxis Oncology, Immunitas, Be Biopharma, Tome Bio, Photys, Carbon Biosciences, and DEM BioPharma.
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