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Bio Fund Management Oy & A/S
Managing Partner & CEO
2008-2010
www.biofund.fi |
BioFund
was.a leading life sciences venture capital firm with offices in Finland and
Denmark. BioFund managed EUR 200 million invested in 47 companies
in 9 countries.
I
joined BioFund initially as a Senior Partner. In early 2009 I was promoted
to Managing Partner and CEO.
BioFund
was established in the late 1990s when the stock market boomed and a
number of early stage venture funds were established in Europe. The
original team managed to raise three funds in quick succession (1997,
1999, 2001) on the back of some early successes in the first fund. But
with the crash of the stock market in 2000, the environment changed and
the team had to return to the investors for additional funds to support
the existing investments. Two annex funds were established in 2003 and
2005 for the first two original funds.
Despite
these annex funds, the team found it difficult to exit the portfolio
companies and also experienced internal conflict.
I
joined the team in 2008, after BioFund had been acquired by Capinordic
A/S.
I
quickly took a leading role in the partnership, and pushed through changes
in processes and working practices. I also worked to solve some of the
personal conflicts in the team, starting by facing up to some of the more
unfortunate practices of some individuals. As a result of my leading role
in the team, I was promoted to Managing Partner and CEO in January 2009.
We
launched fund raising for a new fund in 2008, but unfortunately this
coincided with the financial crisis and we were unable to raise a new
fund. The financial crisis was not the only reason for the failure though.
The track record of the old team was not fantastic, and it deteriorated as
we worked to clean up the portfolio.
As
a result I worked to carry out a generational transition in the team,
focusing on Eric Leire and myself as the new young team, which had not
been involved in making the original investment decisions leading to the
poor track record. We focused on direct secondary transactions working
with large international funds. We had some initial traction and
gained the trust of some of the largest funds in this space.
But
in the end, the management fee of the old funds started dropping rapidly
as we exited or closed the portfolio companies. In December 2009 I
recommended to the owner of BioFund, Capinordic A/S, that they should
close down BioFund. This recommendation was accepted in the spring of
2010, and I left the company in May 2010.
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