After raising an impressive 1.2 billion euros in 2024, European venture capital firm Sofinnova Partners is topping up its latest life sciences fund with help from a star-studded roster of pharmaceutical majors.
Sofinnova on Tuesday announced the final close of its biotech acceleration fund Biovelocita II, which managed to raise 165 million euros ($180 million) through “substantial backing” from the likes of Amgen, Bristol Myers Squibb and Pfizer Ventures.
Sofinnova partners—which is distinct from its U.S.-based “cousin” Sofinnova Investments—considers the closing of the fund a “significant expansion” of its biotech acceleration goals in Europe, allowing the firm to extend its efforts beyond Italy to include France, the United Kingdom and Denmark.
The organization also has ambitions to push its accelerator into additional European countries in the future, Sofinnova said in a March 18 press release.
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Sofinnova itself is headquartered in Paris, with additional offices in London and Milan. The VC firm, which was founded in 1972, backs over 500 companies and currently manages more than 4 billion euros (nearly $4.4 billion) in assets.
The Biovelocita investment strategy was first unveiled in late 2023 with a purpose-built team of “serial entrepreneurs and investors” in tow to provide “a hands-on, robust framework for startups.” The accelerator’s goal is to foster up-and-coming European biotechs through a mix of direct management and financial backing, plus access to Sofinnova’s expansive network and infrastructure, the investment agency has said.
Since its launch, the Biovelocita II fund has screened more than 300 projects and charted multiple “key investments” in new biotechs across Europe, Sofinnova said Tuesday.
Several fledgling companies have already sprung up in the fund’s wake, too, such as BioClec, which working on breakthrough therapies for Alzheimer’s disease, and Forth Therapeutics, which is exploring next-generation precision therapeutics for fibrosis.
“Building on the success of Biovelocita I in Italy, we have now developed a pan-European strategy and assembled a world class team to create and manage companies across the European biotech ecosystem,” Graziano Seghezzi, managing partner of Sofinnova Partners, said in a statement. “The strong response from our pharmaceutical partners and the fact that we exceeded our fundraising target underscore the demand for such an approach.”
The firm noted in its release that Biovelocita II now bears the distinction of being the largest Pan-European biotech accelerator. The fund is being led by partners Gabriella Camboni, Matthieu Coutet, Alex Leech and Zhizhong Joel Yao.
News of Biovelocita II’s close comes roughly two weeks after the venture capital firm revealed that it raised 1.2 billion (about $1.27 billion) over the course of 2024. Sofinnova plans to channel those funds toward up to 60 new life sciences companies across the firm’s seven investment segments, which include biotech, medtech and digital medicine.
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Sofinnova’s eye for investments has already paid off several times in 2025.
Sofinnova-backed Mediar Therapeutics in January inked an idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis licensing deal with Eli Lilly, while Tenpoint Therapeutics—also buoyed by Sofinnova—reported a phase 3 win for its presbyopia candidate that same month.