TMV, which is the investment advisory division of Technomark Consulting Services Ltd, will source investments for the fund in a broad range of early stage medical science companies in the UK and Continental Europe.
Further funding is envisaged once the first tranche has been invested.
The fund, which will invest in areas such as drug delivery, medical devices, medical services, diagnostics and biotechnology, has been set up to fill a funding gap faced by many of the growth companies in the medical sciences sector. This will position TMV between the providers of seed capital and some of the more mature backers of medical science companies who, given the growth in the funds that they manage, now look to provide greater amounts of capital to each of the companies they back. Secondly, by targeting early stage investments we believe we will give promising bioscience companies access to funds which they find difficult to source from either the generalist providers of private equity finance or from the majority of VCs who specialise in this sector. The Investment Committee for the new fund includes senior executives both from TMV and LDC, as well as John Mackie, Chief Executive of the British Venture Capital Association and formerly a founding director of Morgan Grenfell Development Capital. This reflects a continuation of a policy that has recently seen us conclude joint venture arrangements with Antfactory and the London Business School's incubator, Sussex Place.