As the first pillar of the Sustainable Development Umbrella Fund (SDUF), the aim of the Health Compartment is to crowd-in resources from private investors, typically corporate investors, operating in the pharma and med-tech industry. This is particularly important in Europe, where the fragmented life sciences ecosystem has often impeded the collaboration between start-ups and corporates.

Access to innovation is increasingly needed to stay on top of new technologies and treatments of strategic interest for key players within the life sciences industry. At the same time, the successful evolution of innovative businesses is very much dependent on the existence of a solid ecosystem where strategic relationships can be developed and pursued beyond mere investments.

Additionally, the COVID-19 outbreak has been a demonstration of how important it is to further support research, investments and collaboration in the sector of life sciences, and to modernise and strengthen the capacity of healthcare systems across Europe.

In line with the objectives to support the innovation ecosystem in Europe, and in particular the life sciences sector, the EIF and EIT Health have developed the Venture Centre of Excellence (VCoE).

The VCoE is a collaborative framework, part of the SDUF Health Compartment, which aims at fostering the networking, knowledge sharing, strategic collaborations and bilateral sharing of investment opportunities taking the form of a privileged community comprised of life sciences stakeholders such corporates from pharma, med-tech, insurance companies; managers of life science venture capital funds, and entrepreneurs.

To this end, the VCoE aims to contribute towards the development of a more integrated European life sciences ecosystem in the aftermath of COVID-19, which creates more resilience and readiness in the face of potential similar health-related challenges in future.

The SDUF Health Compartment intends to blend public and private investors' resources to reach a target fund size of EUR 200m and up to a maximum fund size of EUR 250m. This is achieved through, on the one side, an anchor investment from the EIF under EFSI alongside our own resources and, on the other side, resources primarily from corporates operating in the pharma and med-tech industries, as well as health insurers and others.

vcoe

In turn, the SDUF Health Compartment aims to build a diversified portfolio of underlying investments through funds or other collective investment schemes active in the EU, which are active in the life sciences sector, among others, in therapeutics, biologics, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, medical technologies and devices, diagnostics, digital health and healthcare.

The final beneficiaries of the SDUF Health Compartment investments at the portfolio company level will be SMEs and small mid-caps established or operating in the EU in the above-mentioned areas.

Financial Intermediaries – Apply here

Financial intermediaries interested in receiving an investment from SDUF under the Health Compartment can apply following the Call for Expression of Interest published below.

Please download the documents, carefully check the criteria and details, and submit the Expression of Interest duly filled in by the deadline. The completed Expression of Interest may be accompanied by additional information you deem relevant to sustaining the application documentation.

After applying, you will have to be pre-selected before the EIF sends the proposal further in the approval process. We select financial intermediaries according to a standard process involving due diligence and proof of compliance with relevant standards and legislation.

The final selection of financial intermediaries will be made by the SDUF Investment Committee based on the recommendations of the EIF as an adviser, following the completion of the assessment for the selection process.

Deadline for submitting your Expression of Interest to the EIF:
30 September 2023 (date of receipt)

Call for Expression of Interest
Annex I – Expression of Interest DOC | PDF
Annex II – Investment Guidelines
Annex III – Guidelines for the VCoE

For further questions, interested financial intermediaries may contact
SDUF-Health@eif.org.

For final beneficiaries (SMEs and small mid-caps):

If you are looking for funding, please contact directly the financial intermediaries of SDUF Health Compartment. A list of these financial intermediaries will be published and kept regularly update on this website. Please note that final funding approval lies solely with the financial intermediary.