VC Profile: Jeito Capital in final stretch of biotech fund deployment

The investor wants to make a maximum of five new platform investments via Jeito Capital I, which closed in September 2021 on EUR 534m, to add to the ten tickets it has deployed in two years.

Jeito has been approached by private equity, Tordjman says, adding that she wants to accelerate the investor at some point but is for the moment focused on being independent.

The past year has seen a new wave of large-cap GPs seeking more exposure to healthcare, either through acquiring smaller asset managers or launching funds specialised in the sector. EQT and Carlyle are the foremost movers, buying LSP and Abingworth respectively, which have both raised a total of around EUR 2.5bn across multiple funds.

Tordjman would not comment on fundraising for a successor vehicle, but points to the near-full deployment of its current fund and how the VC positions itself as a continuity investor to suggest more will be in the works.

Jeito typically invests around EUR 10m-30m but can push the ticket size up to EUR 80m-100m on around one-third of its investments. The larger tickets are becoming increasingly vital when investing in companies it wants to accelerate to market, backed by good science and management teams.

The firm is not rigid about where it invests across the maturity spectrum, looking at early-stage Series A companies with an advanced product and management team, at the clinical stage, or even with the potential of being a clinical candidate.

For example, the VC led a EUR 20m Series A in Innoskel, which develops therapies for rare and life-threatening skeletal diseases. “Early in the models, we could see the value in the neurological data,” Tordjman said.

The fund’s other recent investments include leading a USD 76m Series A for Swiss-based CDR-Life, which is developing a new generation of immuno-oncology therapies, and a EUR 80m Series B for Precirix, a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing precision radiopharmaceuticals in oncology.

Access to expertise

Tordjman founded Jeito Capital after a fifteen-year stint at Sofinnova Partners, a France-headquartered life sciences VC firm that has raised EUR 1.9bn in total, after observing that there was not enough capital in continuity to bring products to market and not enough diversity in gender or skillset among investors.

“We hired a biotech IP lawyer in New York because I wanted a global firm, but we work collectively. She leads some of the deals with the team but then helps companies with IP in the US as we focus on European companies,” Tordjman said.

Jeito Capital I did not have a cornerstone investor, being backed by around 20 LPs that wanted to use its life science credentials to get closer to a complex sector. French pharmaceutical company Sanofi, for example, invested EUR 55m partly to source future drugs in Europe, while Axa committed to the fund since healthcare, and particularly e-health, is a key vertical. For Temasek, taking an LP position was about understanding co-investment opportunities before taking the plunge, she said.

That partly explains why the large-cap GPs have been acquiring life science investors, Tordjman says, pointing to their lack of expertise in a complex sector.

“When private equity does healthcare, it’s more clinics or care for elderly people, it’s not the same business. Life sciences is a growing trend and investors are realising that they need more specialised people,” Tordjman said.

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