Panakès Partners holds EUR 150m first close for second fund

The fundraise has surpassed Panakès' expectations so far, co-founder and managing partner Diana Saraceni told Unquote. "We had lower expectations and expected a slowdown in interest given the pandemic and the challenges in travelling and meeting face to face with investors," she said. "The first close took a little longer than initially expected; we were delayed by around one quarter. But the fundraise has exceeded our expectations so far, in terms of the level of investor interest and the amount that we have raised."

Panakès Fund II was launched in June 2020 and originally had a target of EUR 110m. This has been extended to EUR 180m and the fund will be open for additional LPs until the end of 2021, according to a statement.

Gianni & Origoni provided legal advice on the fund.

Panakès' first fund held a final close in January 2018 on EUR 100m and focused on medical technology companies. The vehicle has backed 12 companies, the GP said in a statement.

The GP intends to make three new hires to support its increased focus on biotech. The firm recently announced the promotion of Barbara Castellano to partner and the team now has 11 investment professionals.

Investors
The fund is backed by two anchor investors: the European Investment Fund and FoF VenturItaly, a fund-of-funds managed by CDP Venture Capital.

"The role of our anchor investors has been relevant, as many of our other investors have a lot of trust in the legal work they are doing, such as setting the terms – especially since not all of the other investors usually invest in funds such as this," Saraceni told Unquote. "Having them on board early in the process gave the other investors a lot of trust."

In addition, family offices and corporates have backed the fund, including Menarini, the Cogliati family (Elemaster Group), the Colombo family (SAPIO Group), the Rovati family (Rottapharm Biotech), the Petrone family (Petrone Group), the Re family (Digitec Group), and the Bassani family (Movi Group).

According to Unquote Data, prior to the launch of Panakès Fund II, the fund's LP base was expected to comprise 40% public institutional investors, 30% Italian pension funds and banking foundations, and 30% Italian family offices and corporate VCs, including Menarini and Rottapharm.

"We have managed to attract roughly equal pools of institutional investors and corporate funds," Saraceni told Unquote when asked about the LP base. "To us, this represents people with a deep understanding of the sector who can bring strategic value. They can help and support with the due diligence for companies, new opportunities, networking and reaching out to key opinion leaders, or building value in our portfolio. We have also attracted an equal pool of private investors who are not as close to the sector, but for whom we have a clear financial value proposition."

Ticket sizes from LPs range from EUR 500,000 to several tens of millions of euros. All of Panakès Fund I's LPs have backed the firm's second fund, with around 30-40% of the fund made up of new investors at the time of the first close.

Investments
The fund will target Series A and later-stage rounds, focusing on companies developing innovative therapeutics and products in the fields of biotechnology, diagnostics, and medical devices. 

Panakès II can deploy larger tickets than its predecessor; its sweet spot is EUR 4m-5m, but it can deploy as little as EUR 500,000 or as much as EUR 8m, with more capital available over the lifetime of its portfolio companies.

The firm said in a statement that it received 500 funding requests from life sciences companies in H1 2021. The fund has two deals in the pipeline that are expected to be announced in autumn and expects to make 15-18 platform deals in total.

Although the majority of Panakès' LPs are Italian, the fund will make investments throughout Europe, Saraceni told Unquote. "We expect to be active at a pan-European level and we are expecting to syndicate a lot of deals – the industry is quite unique in how we can collaborate in terms of strength, geographies, and complementary qualities. Each firm has their own territory and industry segment competences."

People
Panakès Partners – Diana Saraceni, Alessio Beverina (co-founders, managing partners); Fabrizio Landi (co-founder, president).

• Tweet  
• Facebook  
• LinkedIn  
• Google plus  
• Send to  

• Topics
• Venture
• Southern Europe
• Healthcare
• Technology
• Italy
• Venture