Avant View

AVANT BIO Launch Letter

To our current and future partners,

Today we are thrilled to announce AVANT BIO Fund II LP, a vehicle dedicated to enabling tools, technologies, and services and shape how tomorrow’s therapeutics are discovered, developed, and manufactured. In short: today’s life-science “picks and shovels” that power the therapeutic breakthroughs of tomorrow.

A lot has shifted since an industry highpoint in 2021 when we saw record valuations, deal volume, and IPO/SPAC activity. Capital markets pulled a hard U-turn, headline multiples compressed, and yet the demand for smarter, cheaper, and more scalable biomanufacturing only intensified. The past two years have been a real-world stress-test of our thesis: when new modalities stumble and macro headwinds blow, the industrial layer of life sciences keeps on investing, innovating, and growing.   

Who we are

AVANT BIO is ideally positioned at the interface of technology and biology, and is purpose-built to fuel and support companies at the forefront of innovation in life sciences. We take the lead to support the vanguards whose technologies and solutions are radically improving human health globally for a transformative future.

We earned our stripes as operators before ever writing our first check. Both Reinhard Vogt and I launched new businesses, built facilities, scaled platforms, integrated acquisitions, and carried P&Ls in good times and bad over 3 decades.  Since firm inception, Sebastien Latapie has his finger on the pulse of the industry, actively managing our deal funnel, often uncovering opportunities others don’t see.  Ole Henrik Bang-Andreasen, from his base in London, has become our well-established bridge to investors, targets and deals throughout Europe. Our experience shapes how we invest: high conviction, active support, pragmatic yet forward-looking guidance.

I’m often asked why an operator becomes a GP. The short answer: I watched great founders and companies stall for lack of capital, context and connections – we aim to change that.

Why now

We believe we’re still in the early innings of an exponential curve. Cell and gene therapies are validated but capacity-constrained and challenges remain. mRNA, multi-specifics, and in-silico design are sprinting from labs to clinics. Formulation poses real challenges to almost every leading biopharma, and biologics continue to draw on efficiency gains. Each leap in therapeutics add complexity, and complexity demands new industrial infrastructure, automation, analytics, reagents, consumables and intelligent software. The big strategics are increasingly outsourcing innovation to address these areas.

Meanwhile, cell and gene therapies are validated but bottlenecked, mRNA and antibody-drug conjugates are entering new phases of clinical and commercial relevance, and the FDA projects up to 20 new Advanced Therapy Medicinal Product (ATMP) approvals per year.  Each of these modalities demands new tools, smarter infrastructure, and lower-cost manufacturing – the exact arena where AVANT BIO plays.

We’re at a turning point. In the last two years, life sciences have been stress-tested by macro shocks, clinical volatility, regulatory backlog and shifts, and capital flight from generalist retail investors. The valuation reset has widened the entry window for disciplined capital. Strategic acquirers are flush with cash and hungry for capability. When others pull back, we lean in with focus, conviction, and experience.

How we invest

Fund II is stage-agnostic with a concentrated focus:           

  • Life Science Industrials, Techbio, and Healthtech across North America and Europe.
  • First checks are made in growth rounds where commercial traction is visible, and organizations are scaling.
  • Initial checks of $3–10 million, with dry powder reserved for follow-ons.

What we bring

Strategic Access. Our LP base and extended networks include access to leaders who buy, build, and/or partner with the very capabilities our companies create.

Operator-Grade Pattern Recognition. We’ve been in founder’s shoes, we know what it takes to scale through good and bad markets.  Those playbooks now serve as tools for our portfolio companies.

Research as a Service. We equip founders with the frameworks and market maps needed to make smarter decisions. We publish internal theses, market maps, and diligence frameworks to give founders an unbiased sounding board, because speed is worthless without precision.

A Connected Portfolio.  Our current and growing cohort of founders and CEOs are the true vanguards – at the frontline of life sciences making tomorrow’s therapeutics possible. These leaders are enabling new processes, new approaches in digital pathology, and tackling the biggest formulation challenges across pharma.

The road ahead

We cannot steer macroeconomics, but we track opportunities with conviction. When volatility scares generalists to the sidelines, specialists with deep industrial roots can lean in. We’ve already drafted capital-efficient playbooks for companies that monetize platforms through both product revenue and strategic supply agreements, models built to compound through cycles. Our ambition is simple: make the “industrial layer” the default high-growth, low-binary-risk corner of life-science venture.

To our current and future LPs: we are grateful for your support and excitement for our concentrated and focused thesis. 

To the next generation of entrepreneurs: whether you’re in stealth mode, mid-scale, or planning your next financing round, we would love to meet you.

Thank you in advance for the trust you place in us; we intend to earn it every day.

Until we meet,

Daniella Kranjac
Founding General Partner, AVANT BIO