About This Fund
Sofinnova Biovelocita II is the second fund of the Biovelocita biotech acceleration program managed by Sofinnova Partners, one of Europe's leading life sciences venture capital firms with over €4 billion in assets under management. The fund achieved its final close at €165 million on March 18, 2025, surpassing its original target and establishing itself as Europe's largest pan-European biotech acceleration fund. The Biovelocita strategy is distinct from a traditional VC fund: it focuses on the creation and acceleration of early-stage biotech companies from the ground up, combining direct management involvement, founder coaching, and access to an extensive network of scientific, clinical, and industry advisors alongside equity capital.
Sofinnova Biovelocita II operates across France, Italy, the United Kingdom, and Denmark, reflecting a deliberate geographic expansion relative to the first Biovelocita vehicle, which was primarily Italy-focused. The fund targets pre-seed and seed-stage biotech company creation, screening project opportunities across academic institutions and research centers, and building companies around validated scientific platforms. Key focus areas include precision therapeutics, cell and gene therapy, fibrosis, neurodegeneration, and other areas of high unmet medical need. The fund's backing from three major pharmaceutical companies — Amgen, Bristol Myers Squibb, and Pfizer Ventures — as strategic LPs provides additional validation of the scientific quality of investment targets, as well as potential partnership pipelines for portfolio companies.
Since the Biovelocita strategy's inception, the platform has screened more than 300 projects across European research institutions. Biovelocita II's initial portfolio companies include BioClec (a biotechnology startup focused on immunotherapy), Forth Therapeutics (precision therapeutics for rare fibrotic diseases), and Signadori Bio (cell engineering platform). The fund is led by Managing Partner Gabriella Camboni alongside Partners Matthieu Coutet, Alex Leech, and Zhizhong Joel Yao, who collectively bring deep scientific and commercial expertise in drug discovery, clinical development, and European biotech ecosystem development.