– GERMANY, Berlin – Humedics GmbH, a specialist for real-time and mobile measurement of the individual liver function at the bedside of the patient, today announced the closing of a Series C financing round totaling more than 6.3 million Euro. Humedics’ business model, products and company development has attracted new international investors that will join the current private and public investors.
The financing round was led by two new international investors, Vesalius Biocapital Partners and Seventure Partners. All venture capital investors from previous rounds are also participating in the present financing round. The existing syndicate includes Peppermint VenturePartners (managing the Charité Biomedical Fund), VC Fonds Technologie managed by IBB-Beteiligungsgesellschaft, ERP Startfonds of the Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW), Ventegis and High-Tech Gründerfonds.
The raised capital will be used for the European market entry of Humedics’ proprietary LiMAx test and the corresponding FLIP diagnostic device. This breath test based diagnostic system represents a revolution in functional liver diagnostics by enabling clinicians to quantitatively determine the individual liver function capacity for a patient within minutes. It allows for better risk assessment in liver surgery and thus, superior surgery planning as well as selecting treatment strategies optimally adapted to the individual patients liver status. The LiMAx test provides certainty for the physician, safety for the patient and leads to cost reduction for the hospital.
Erwin de Buijzer, Managing Director of Humedics GmbH and private co-investor in the financing round, states: “We are delighted that we were able to attract international venture capital partners to join the consortium of investors; all of them are highly experienced in healthcare investments. The investment and the broad expertise of our investors establishes a sound basis for a successful application for marketing authorization of the LiMAx test in 2015. We are convinced that the LiMAx test contributes to optimized therapy of patients with acute and chronic liver failure and the LiMAx test has the potential to become a gold standard in liver diagnostics.”
The new investors will join the Humedics Board. Vesalius Managing Partner Dr. Christian Schneider and Dr. Robert Schier from Seventure Partners will reinforce the current board that consists of Dr. Klaus Stöckemann (Peppermint VenturePartners), Ute Mercker (IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft) and Dr. Volker Pfahlert (Numares Group).
About Humedics
Humedics has developed a breath test based diagnostic system (LiMAx test), which comprises a CE-marked medical device, breath masks and a diagnostic drug. More than 100 million people world-wide suffer from liver diseases (i.e. cirrhosis, hepatitis, fatty liver, metabolic disorders and liver tumors). The LiMAx test enables the clinician to quantitatively determine the individual liver function capacity for a patient within minutes. This allows for selection of treatment strategies that are optimally adapted to the individual patients liver status. Current applications include diagnosis of the liver function before and after liver transplantation, liver surgery planning (e.g. assessment of the amount of liver to be resected without potentially increasing the risk of liver failure) and assessment of diseases such as liver cirrhosis. The LiMAx test has been used more than 12,500 times in clinical practice. Results have been published in highly respected scientific journals. For the approval of the LiMAx test Humedics is presently conducting a phase III multi-center clinical trial. Results are expected mid 2015.
LiMAx Test
The underlying principle of the LiMAx test involves the following steps: Firstly, the diagnostic drug solution is administered intravenously and the drug is metabolized in the liver to paracetamol and 13CO2. The latter is exhaled in the breath. The exhaled air is collected via a respiratory mask. Subsequent continuous measurement of 13CO2 in the patients’ breath using laser detection in the FLIP device provides a quantitative determination of the liver capacity and thus reflects the liver function.
About Vesalius Biocapital Partners
Vesalius Biocapital Partners invests in companies active in human health through venture capital funds raised since 2007. With over € 150 million under management in two funds, Vesalius Biocapital Partners plays the role of lead investor in the large majority of its financing rounds. We invest in European projects in all stages of development with a sound proprietary technology and corresponding IP, unique team skills and a clear competitive edge based on solid data. Our investment strategy is focused on four areas: therapeutics, medical devices, diagnostics and novel food applications.
About Seventure Partners
Seventure Partners is a leading venture capital firm in Europe. Since 1997, Seventure has invested in innovative businesses with high growth potential in digital technologies in France and Germany and in the life sciences field across Europe, with currently over €500m in assets under management.
In life sciences, the four areas of focus include biotechnology and pharmaceuticals, connected health and medtech, industrial biotechnology and cleantech, and the microbiome, lifestyle healthcare, personalised medicine and nutrition and food. Seventure Partners also considers investments in the field of diagnostics, biomarkers, drug delivery systems, and services. Investments can range between €500k and €10m per round, or up to €20m per company, from early to late stage.
Seventure is a subsidiary of Natixis, the corporate investment management and financial services arm of Groupe BPCE, the second-largest French bank.
About Seventure Partners’ Health for Life Capital Fund
In December 2013, Seventure Partners launched its ‘Health for Life Capital’ Fund, the first venture capital fund focused on investment in high growth potential companies that provide innovative technologies or have the potential for disruptive innovation in the wider healthcare and the microbiome and nutrition space. Europe is the primary focus of the fund, but it will expand internationally if strategic opportunities arise. The €120m fund attracted strategic investments from prestigious organisations including Danone, Tereos, Tornier, Lesaffre as well as entrepreneurs and financial institutions and is managed by Seventure’s life sciences team.
About Peppermint VenturePartners (PVP)
PVP is a private venture capital firm based in Berlin, Germany with a track record of more than 14 years in investing in early-stage healthcare companies. The main focus involves innovative companies in the field of medical technology including diagnostics and “digital health”, as well as selected pharma projects in Europe that have already been able to demonstrate an initial “proof-of-concept” for their technologies or products. At the end of 2010, PVP, in cooperation with the Charité Foundation, launched the Peppermint Charité Biomedical Fund (CBF). Within the scope of its partnership with the Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, PVP has special access to a unique network and to the medical expertise of one of Europe’s largest and most renowned university clinics. So far CBF has made seven investments. The A-round of Humedics in 2011 was led by CBF and was the first investment of the fund.
About IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH
IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft provides innovative Berlin-based companies with venture capital and has established itself in Berlin as a market leader in early-stage financing. The funds are used primarily for developing and launching innovative products or services and creative business concepts. Currently, two funds managed by IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft are in the investment phase: the VC Fonds Technologie Berlin, with assets of 52 million EUR, and the VC Fonds Kreativwirtschaft Berlin, with assets of 30 million EUR. Both VC funds are subsidized by the Investitionsbank Berlin (IBB) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), managed by the State of Berlin. Since 1997, in consortiums with partners, IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft has provided more than 940 million EUR to Berlin-based creative and technology companies, with IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft investing approximately 128 million EUR as the lead-, co-lead- or co-investor.
About ERP Start-up-Fund
KfW finances and supports, among other things, business start-ups, small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) as well as investments in economic growth and employment projects in Germany.
The ERP Start-up-Fund, administered and co-financed by KfW, offers equity financing for innovative, technology-based enterprises with excellent growth prospects. The fund finances research and product development as well as the launching of new products, procedures and services. KfW always cooperates with a lead investor and exclusively adopts market conditions. Since 2004 the 730 million Euro ERP Start-up-Fund provides young emerging technology-based companies with funding.
About Ventegis Capital AG
Ventegis Capital AG emerged in 2001 from the consolidation of the Berliner Effektenbeteiligungsgesellschaft AG and Cybermind AG. Both companies were active in private equity / venture capital from the mid-nineties onwards. Following a squeeze-out in 2013 the shareholder is now the Berliner Effektengesellschaft AG, a company listed in the Entry Standard of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange with two other subsidiaries besides Ventegis, the quirin bank AG and Tradegate AG. The Berliner Effektengesellschaft is a financial holding comprised of flexible and innovative companies offering a wide, integrated range of services around the capital market and creating valuable synergy effects. The business activities of Ventegis Capital AG come under the fields of investment and financial advisory. Currently the Ventegis Capital AG holds three investments in MedTech and Cleantech industry.
About High-Tech Gruenderfonds
High-Tech Gruenderfonds invests in young, high potential high-tech start-ups. The seed financing provided is designed to enable start-ups to take an idea through prototyping and to market launch. Typically, High-Tech Gruenderfonds invests EUR 500,000 in the seed stage, with the potential for up to a total of EUR 2 million per portfolio company in follow-on financing. Investors in this public/private partnership include the Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy, the KfW Banking Group, as well as strategic corporate investors including ALTANA, BASF, Bayer, B. Braun, Robert Bosch, CEWE, Daimler, Deutsche Post DHL, Deutsche Telekom, Evonik, Lanxess, media + more venture Beteiligungs GmbH & Co. KG, METRO, Qiagen, RWE Innogy, SAP, Tengelmann and Carl Zeiss. High-Tech Gruenderfonds has about EUR 576 million under management in two funds (EUR 272 million HTGF I, EUR 304 million HTGF II).
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