euro35m pre-IPO financing for Neurotech

Investee Company – Neurotech SA (France)

Investee Company Business Type – Biotechnology

Type of Financing – Expansion

Equity Providers – Apax Partners and Merlin Biosciences (lead investors), 3i, ABN AMRO, AGF Innovation, Atlas Ventures, Banque de Vizille, Banexi, CDC Innovation, GIMV, IMH, Private Equity Holdings, Sofinnova, Rothschild and Westdeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale.

Equity Leader (Individual) – Mark Clement managing director of Merlin Biosciences and Dr Laurent Ganem, General Partner of Apax Partners

Debt Providers – N/A

Debt Type – N/A

Debt Leader (Individual) – N/A

Equity Amount – euro35 million

Total Deal Value – euro35 million

Other Advisors – Legal advisors to Neurotech – Andersen Legal

Comments – Neurotech a specialist in the discovery, development and commercialisation of cell-based therapies in the eye and the central nervous system (CNS), has raised euro35 million in a pre-IPO round of funding. The joint lead investors were Apax Partners and Merlin Biosciences, who both invested euro10 million.

Other new investors in this round are Westdeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale, ABN Amro, Rothschild, and AGF Innovation.

The euro35 million, which is France’s largest biotech private funding this year, will allow Neurotech to complete a number of agreements to bring new technologies into the company and to commence additional clinical trials in three main areas: Retinitis Pigmentosa, Age-related Macular Degeneration, the main cause of blindness in adults, and Neovascular diseases of the eye.

Mark Clement, managing director of Merlin Biosciences’ European activities who jointly lead the deal, said: “Neurotech has a highly innovative and competitive approach to addressing neurological and ophthalmic disorders, which form a large market of unmet medical need. In particular the company’s proprietary encapsulated cell technology, constitutes one of the few competitive solutions to eye diseases and offers a delivery mechanism for broader CNS disorders.”