Gilde raises €200M European healthcare investment fund

Gilde Healthcare has raised €200 million ($226 million) to invest in suppliers of medical products and other health businesses. The fund moves the amount raised by Gilde’s healthcare investment vehicles past the €1 billion mark.

European healthcare investor Gilde is best known in biotech for the venture and growth capital side of its business, through which it has backed drug development shops such as Ablynx, Innate Pharma and uniQure. The other side of the business has a private equity strategy aimed at more established healthcare companies.

That private equity operation has €200 million more to invest following the closing of Gilde’s third healthcare services business. The fund will invest in profitable suppliers of medical products, plus providers of healthcare and services, in countries around its offices in Germany and the Netherlands.

Gilde’s private equity remit extends to drug discovery service shops, as evidenced by its involvement with Mercachem and Syncom. In 2017, Gilde invested in the drug discovery CROs to create a single mid-sized European service provider, MercachemSyncom.

The €200 million fund sets Gilde to make more such deals. Jasper van Gorp, managing partner at Gilde, thinks the markets in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg and Germany, Austria and Switzerland—regions collectively known as Benelux and DACH—will provide plenty of opportunities to put the money to good use.

“We are pleased with the high level of interest for our new fund which is testament to our investment strategy and track record. We see a strong deal flow of healthcare providers, suppliers of medical products and service providers in the Benelux and DACH regions,” van Gorp said in a statement.

The level of interest in the fund has enabled Gilde to raise significantly more than last time around. Gilde’s second healthcare services closed four years ago with €100 million.