NRF commits $150m to life sciences VC Brandon Capital
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The news: The National Reconstruction Fund Corporation (NRFC) has invested $150 million in life science venture capital firm Brandon Capital, which today announced the final close of its sixth fund at $439 million.
The context: The NRFC, which runs Labor's $15 billion initiative aimed at driving investment across seven priority areas, said the commitment will support Australian-developed therapeutics, vaccines, and medical devices and marks a "major step forward" in translating world-class research into real-world health solutions.
The investment will primarily help late-stage ventures to grow, complete clinical development and pursue regulatory approval. A third of the funding will be dedicated to early-stage ventures to help support new medical breakthroughs.
The commitment puts the NRFC's combined investments above its financial year target of $550 million.
Other investors in Brandon Capital's BB6 fund include Hostplus, HESTA, CSL, the Queensland Investment Corporation and the Western Australian government.
What they said: “Australia produces some of the world’s best medical research, but these promising discoveries are often lost offshore at the point of commercialisation and Australian medical manufacturing makes up only 0.3 per cent of the nation’s gross domestic product,” said NRFC chief executive David Gall.
“Our partnership with Brandon Capital will help to ensure that more of Australia’s world-class medical innovation makes the full onshore journey from laboratory to commercial viability so that highly skilled jobs can contribute to Australia’s commercialisation of important medical innovation," Gall said.
Brandon Capital founding partner and managing director Chris Nave said: “The allocation from the NRFC takes Brandon Capital’s BB6 fund to $439 million in committed capital, making it Brandon’s largest fund to date.”
“The NRFC’s investment will support some of Australia’s most promising biomedical companies, providing the level of funding required to support the development and commercialisation of their novel technologies and importantly, enabling them to do this from an Australian base," Nave said.
The sources: Brandon Capital media release, NRFC media release
