Successful first close achieved

The Netherlands’ Human Plus Fund has successfully achieved the first close of its biomedical innovation fund. Initial commitments are earmarked for the two first investments which were selected together with the Netherlands Cancer Institute – Antoni van Leeuwenhoek hospital, NKI-AVL.

Two spin-off companies have now been established as a result of this first close. The two companies are focusing on early detection of colon cancer and on novel cancer surgery navigation technology, respectively. NKI’s head of Knowledge Transfer Koen Verhoef: “We are extremely pleased that these companies are now established and financed, which helps them to develop their innovative products further and bring these innovations to patients. We are thrilled that Human Plus has agreed to work with us on these developments.”

Human Plus fund manager Frank de Man: “Over the last few years we reviewed and discussed numerous investment opportunities across different diseases. Cancer detection as well as cancer treatment continues to be extremely needed across the globe. Biomedical innovation is very difficult to achieve and requires both funding and vision. We were eager to support funding these new companies which have respective objectives of preventing colorectal cancer by early detection of precancerous lesions, and by helping oncology surgeons to navigate during surgery to improve success rates for cancer removal. We were impressed by the potential impact of both of these opportunities, which fit our model. Our investors are very supportive for us to develop in this field.”