Limburg Ventures targets life science

DSM Venturing and Business Development and Limburg Development Company have launched Limburg Ventures, a venture capital fund targeting life science start-ups. The fund has a €25m target.

Limburg Ventures will be focused on companies willing to relocate to the Dutch province of Limburg, and to the research campus at Chemelot, north of Maastricht. Investments will also be made in the surrounding cross-border regions in Germany and Belgium (the Meuse-Rhine Euregion.) Areas of expertise in the region include cardiovascular and oncology research, nutrition and health, biomaterials and biomedical devices and biopharmaceuticals. In the field of advanced materials the region is particularly functional in polymers, coatings and films, formulations and processing activities.

There are currently two investment directors on the team. Casper Bruens brings expertise from DSM Venturing and Maurice Wijts comes from Industriebank LIOF.

The group will make investments of between €0.25m and €2m and will focus on companies that have passed incubation phase and have achieved proof of principle status, but lack the funds required to upscale or commercialise.

Paul Hamm, director of DSM Venturing and Business Development, said: “We already have an enormous concentration of facilities and researchers in a business setting in this region. To be located nearby this wealth of resources is very attractive to many companies in order to increase their chances of success. This is beneficial to us as well as to those companies and entrepreneurs.”

DSM and LIOF are well represented in numerous networks in The Netherlands and abroad. These networks will be made available to the companies Limburg Ventures invests in. The goal of the fund, according to the group, is to create a strong “high chem” hub where start-ups can benefit from established companies, university hospitals and research institutes in the area.