Abingworth closes 12th fund on $315m

Oscar Geen
09 July 2018

Tweet
Facebook
LinkedIn
Google plus
Send to

Life sciences VC firm Abingworth has held a final close on $315m for Abingworth Bioventures VII (ABV VII), surpassing its $300m target.

The vehicle originally set a target of $300m with a $400m hard-cap and held a first close on $115m in November 2016, followed by an interim close on $240m in June 2018.

The previous fund, Abingworth Bioventures VI, held a final close on £225m against a £200m target in February 2014.

ABV VII will follow the same strategy as its predecessor, investing in early- and late-stage venture deals in Europe and the US.

Asante Capital Group acted as placement agent for ABV VII. Goodwin Procter acted as legal counsel.

Investors
Abingworth said its investor base has further diversified for ABV VII, including commitments from endowments, foundations, funds-of-funds, family offices, healthcare corporations, insurance companies and pension plans across the US, Europe and Asia.

It achieved a re-up rate of 50%, with 15 investors returning from ABV VI. However, Abingworth deliberately sought commitments from 28 new investors in order to geographically diversify its LP base into Asia.

Investments
The fund will back life sciences companies from Europe and the US, investing $15-30m on average, in early- and late-stage venture deals, clinical co-development, venture investments in public equities, and public equities. Historically, Abingworth has invested slightly more in the US than Europe, a split of around 60-40, but expects to balance this out in the new fund.

So far, ABV VII has made three early-stage investments and is still less than 10% deployed.

People
Abingworth – Tim Haines, Kurt von Emster (managing partners).