Brandon raises $154m for Australia life sciences fund

The fund, said to the largest of its kind, is backed by AustralianSuper, Statewide Super - both of which are existing investors in Brandon funds - HESTA and HOSTPLUS.

About A$50 million of the fund has been earmarked for 20-30 very early seed-stage investments in biotech or medical device technologies. The remaining A$150 million is reserved for follow-on investments to take the most successful start-ups through to clinical trials. Superannuation investors will also have the chance to invest larger amounts of capital in the most promising assets.

"We believe that there is significant potential in Australian life sciences, which has always outperformed in terms of research innovation, but has fallen short when it comes to commercialising those discoveries," said Chris Nave, principal executive of the MRCF and managing director of Brandon Capital, in statement.

"This failing has been largely attributed to the lack of sufficient early stage investment capital and access to hands-on investment expertise to guide the development and commercialisation of these medical technologies."

Brandon Capital closed its first fund at A$11 million in 2007. This was followed by the A$40 million MRCF 2 in 2011. The firm also raised the A$50 million Brandon Biosciences Fund 1 in 2008. In January, MRCF backed Solvanix, a spin-out from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Sydney that is developing a technology for improving drug stability, to the tune of A$2 million.

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• Topics
• Australasia
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• Early-stage
• Venture
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• Australia
• healthcare
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