Lauxera closes first health tech fund on EUR 260m

Rachel Lewis
09 February 2022

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Lauxera Capital Partners has closed its first fund, Lauxera Growth I, on EUR 260m, exceeding its hard-cap of EUR 200m.

The fund was launched in January 2021 with a target of EUR 150m. It will invest tickets of EUR 20m-40m in both growth and buyout investments in European and US-based health technology companies, with the potential of co-investment from the fund's limited partners.

The vehicle so far has five deals under its belt, being lead or co-lead investor in the latest financing rounds of Reapplix (Denmark), Lumicks (the Netherlands), Caresyntax (Germany and the US), and Lifen (France). It also led the acquisition of a majority stake in Groupe PSIH (France).

"We are aiming for the portfolio mix between growth and buyout to be around 50/50 overall," founding partner Samuel Levy told Unquote. All but one of the deals so far, PSIH, have been on the growth side, so the future deals pipeline is more orientated towards buyout, he added.

The fund will also invest in both EBITDA-positive and -negative companies at the commercialisation stage of development. "It's a commercially focused fund so we need to see that the technology has the features in place to scale, including reimbursement," said Levy.

Around four-fifths of its investments will be in Europe with the remainder in north America. A key focus is to help European health tech companies quickly penetrate the US market.

The GP expects the holding period for its portfolio companies to be four to six years, with liquidity events coming from a dual-track process of either a strategic sale or a public listing. Levy said that "Big Tech" is increasingly acquisitive in the space, pointing to Microsoft's recent buyout of Nuance.

One of the main underlying trends that the fund is targeting is the shift towards "hospital at home", whereby patients are treated in lower-cost settings and can manage some of their own diagnostic needs, leaving hospitals to deliver acute care.

Meanwhile, it also wants to invest in technology-enabled systems that make hospitals more efficient.

Investors
The fund is backed by limited partners such as Covea, Candriam and BPI France, the French national investment bank, which invested in equity and through its Growth fund-of-funds on behalf of private insurers and the French public financial institution Caisse des Dépôts.

Major European family offices also participated, including Tethys, Compagnie Nationale à Portefeuille, Financière Dassault, and Italmobiliare.

The vehicle has also seen additional commitments from the European Investment Fund, the Biotech Health Acceleration fund – handled on behalf of the French government by BPI France as part of the Programme d'investissements d'avenir – insurance leaders Matmut and Harmonie Mutuelle (Vyv Group), and Swen Capital Partners.