Press release
Paris, 20 October 2021
LBO France announces the closing of Digital Health 2, its second digital healthcare fund, at €155m
LBO France’s digital health venture strategy continues to gain ground with the Digital Health 2 fund, which has just completed its fundraising, with 155 million euros collected, twice as much as its predecessor fund, SISA (Services Innovants pour les acteurs de la Santé et de l’Autonomie, or “Innovative Services for Healthcare and Autonomy”), which closed in 2017 at 70 million euros.
As a pioneer in digital healthcare since 2014, LBO France received a renewed vote of confidence from almost all investors who had put their money in the first SISA fund, including institutional LPs such as Bpifrance, about 15 insurance companies and family offices. Most of these long-standing investors put even more money into the new fund. Digital Health 2 also welcomed on board new, well-known corporate investors, such as Orange via its Orange Digital Investment holding company.
Digital Health 2 aims to finance by 2024 about 15 B2B-dedicated SMEs in France and Western Europe, most of whose revenues are expanding rapidly.
The fund has already made five investments:
- QuantifiCare, a medical imaging specialist in skincare for clinical trials and aesthetic specialists;
- Tribvn Healthcare, a publisher of digital pathology software for managing, analysing and sharing cellular images;
- FeetMe, a maker of medical devices that produces smart insoles and real-life gait analysis solutions for walking disorders;
- Meditect, a leader in drug traceability in sub-Saharan Africa;
- Antidote, an Anglo-American company that offers a patient recruiting solution based on a proprietary digital technology to facilitate clinical trials.
The fund invests between 5 and 20 million euros in each company.
Led by Valéry Huot, the venture investment team consists of professionals from both the tech and healthcare sectors. It expanded in 2018 with the arrival of two Franco-American physicians – Sébastien Woynar as Investment Director, and Philippe Chambon as Venture Partner.
Valéry Huot, Partner and Head of Venture at LBO France: “With €155m raised at this final closing, we have achieved our objective of being twice the size of our first fund. This allows us to more closely support the growth of companies in the portfolio. The portfolio that we have set up in Western Europe pursues the strategy that we have offered to our investors, i.e., identifying and supporting e-health start-ups to transform them into sector leaders. We will also be expanding our activities in Western Europe, particularly in Germany, which possesses a robust healthcare system that is ripe for innovations.”
Franck Noiret, Venture Managing Director: “Digital Health 2’s larger size gives LBO France’s venture team the means to fund a larger number of ambitious digital health projects. We are delighted to provide long-term support to new entrepreneurs and to avail them of our know-how and experience in this area.”
Sébastien Woynar, Venture Investment Director: “The pandemic has revealed the full importance of new healthcare technologies. Some practices – such as teleconsultation, remote recruiting for clinical trials, widespread adoption of tools for compiling and analysing data for better diagnoses and prognoses, etc. – have moved into the mainstream and increased the need to roll out greater resources in this sector.”
Digital Health 2 was one of the private equity funds dedicated to tech firms in the official report presented to the French government by Philippe Tibi’s on 17 July 2020.
New investments are expected to be announced soon.