Our history

» 1972
Sofinnova is the first venture capital firm in France.

» 1976
The firm creates an American subsidiary, Sofinnova, Inc., and sends a representative to San Francisco to make the firm’s first investments in Silicon Valley.

» 1981
Sofinnova develops its expertise by joining forces with the largest venture capital firms on the West Coast, notably Burr, Egan, Deléage & Co. Sofinnova co-finances companies such as Collagen, Biogen, Genentech, Tandon, Tandem and Printonix, which have risen to become some of the international stars of biotechnology, electronics, and data processing. Sofinnova and the other investors who helped to launch these success stories multiplied their investments by 30, 40, even 50 times over.

» 1985
Sofinnova goes public with a listing on the Paris Stock Exchange.

» 1987
After six years in San Francisco as president of Sofinnova Inc., Jean-Bernard Schmidt returns to France. Sofinnova is then focused on investing in start-ups in two sectors: technology and life sciences.

» 1989
Sofinnova creates Sofinnova Capital, its first French fund, with €38 million. The fund finances the start up of Genset, Cerep, Egide and Flamel.

» 1993
Sofinnova is de-listed and adopts a fundraising model.

» 1994
Sofinnova creates a collaborative fund with Walden Group, the Sino-French Capital Investment Fund, in Southeast Asia. The same year, the Paris team raises a second fund: Sofinnova Capital II. The fund of €47 million finances companies such as Actelion, Nicox, VistaPrint, Parrot, Multimania and Exonhit.

» 1997
Sofinnova and Sofinnova, Inc. are bought out by their respective management teams, who become the majority shareholders of the new firms: Sofinnova Partners in Paris and Sofinnova Ventures in San Francisco. Their common focus remains the same, to provide companies with the means to progress further and faster, with greater certainty.

» 1998
Sofinnova Capital III closes at €121 million to invest in notable companies like Innate, Maximiles and NovusPharma.

» 2001
Sofinnova Capital IV closes at €330 million. This fund positions Sofinnova Partners as one of the biggest venture capital firms in Europe. Investments in this fund include Corevalve, Fovea, Novexel, Sensitive Object.

» 2005
Sofinnova Capital V closes at €385 million.
Sofinnova is awarded the prize “Fund of the Year” by Private Equity International.
At the European Venture Capital Journal’s EVCJ Awards, Sofinnova Partners takes first place in the categories “VC Techno House of the Year 2005” and “Fundraising of the Year 2005”.

» 2006
In under 18 months, Sofinnova launches eight companies on four public stock exchanges: VistaPrint on Nasdaq; Emailvision, Exonhit, Staff and Line and Maximiles on Alternext; Parrot and Innate Pharma on Euronext; and Esmertec on the Zurich stock market.
Sofinnova Partners receives the Grand Prize from Private Equity Magazine: the special editors’ prize in the category of “Venture Funds”.

» 2007
Actelion and VistaPrint, companies financed by Sofinnova at the seed round, passed their respective market caps of 7 billion Swiss francs and of 1.8 billion dollars.
Sofinnova Partners receives the Prix Capital Finance for the “Best Venture Capital Exit 2007” following Parrot’s IPO.

» 2008
Sofinnova Capital VI is launched with a closing in 2009 at €260 million.

» 2009
Sofinnova completes three major exits:
- Corevalve, acquired by Medtronic for $700 million plus milestones payments
- Fovea, acquired by Sanofi-Aventis for $370 million
- Novexel, acquired by AstraZeneca for over $500 million
Sofinnova Partners is awarded the prize "European Venture Capital Firm of the Year" by Private Equity International

» 2010
Sofinnova completes major exits:
- Sensitive Object, acquired by Tyco Electronics for $62 million
- Streamezzo acquired by Amdocs
- Sprice acquired by Travelport
- Movetis, acquired by Shire for $428 million
- E-mail Vision, acquired by Francisco Partners for $65 million
- Preglem, acquired by Gedeon richter for CHF445 million

Sofinnova Partners is awarded the prize
-"European Venture Capital Fund of the Year" by Private Equity International.
-"Venture Capital Team of the Year" by Capital Finance and
-"Venture Capital Firm of the Year" by Private Equity Magazine