Forbion Research
Overview
Forbion is a global venture capital firm focused on biotech and other sustainable solutions that improve the health of people and the planet. It describes itself as having "20 years of impacting the future" and manages roughly €5bn across 11 funds. Offices are in Naarden (the Netherlands, headquarters), Munich and Boston. The team is over 50 people.
Investment Thesis
Forbion backs science-led therapeutics companies with experienced teams and clear paths to patient impact. The platform is organized into two strategies. Human Health covers therapeutics across oncology, immunology and inflammation, central nervous system, ophthalmology, cardiovascular and metabolic, respiratory, nephrology, infectious disease, and rare and genetic disorders. Planetary Health, through the BioEconomy fund, covers agriculture, food, materials and environmental technologies. The firm applies ESG and SFDR frameworks and publishes impact reporting for both strategies.
Strategies and Stage Focus
- Forbion Formation: a joint venture with BioGeneration Ventures (BGV) and its FIRST Fund. Spin-outs, pre-creation and pre-seed, company creation through Series A.
- Forbion Ventures: builds, invests in and supports pre-clinical to early clinical companies, primarily in Europe. About a third of the Ventures portfolio is companies Forbion builds, often with proven entrepreneurs and in-licensed assets. Two thirds are companies selected from more than 1,400 deals. Most rounds are Series A and Series B.
- Forbion Growth: clinical-stage drug development capital, mainly private growth rounds, selectively crossover, PIPE, VPE and block trades, in later-stage European and North American biopharma.
- Forbion BioEconomy: Planetary Health early-stage investing.
Funds and Check Size
- Forbion Growth Opportunities Fund III: €1.2bn, closed October 2024.
- Forbion Ventures Fund VII: €890m (site also cites €900m), closed October 2024.
- Forbion Ventures Fund VI: €750m, closed April 2023.
- Forbion Ventures Fund V: €460m, closed December 2020.
- Forbion BioEconomy I: €200m.
Forbion does not publish typical check sizes. Round sizes it leads or co-leads run from about $75M (Altesa BioSciences Series B) to $245M (Aiolos Series A), but Forbion's own share is not disclosed, so no check range is stored.
Lead Tendency
Forbion both leads and co-leads. Recent examples: it led Altesa's $75M Series B (February 2026), co-led Mariana Oncology's $175M Series B with Deep Track Capital as the first investment of Ventures Fund VI, co-led AIRNA's $155M Series B, co-led Aiolos Bio's $245M Series A, and co-led the launch of Rectify Pharmaceuticals with a $100M Series A.
Recent Activity
The firm is actively deploying from Ventures VII and Growth III. Tracxn counted 136 portfolio investments and 16 new ones in the 12 months to September 2026. PitchBook records Ventures VII's latest investment as RQ Bio (June 2026). Recent portfolio news includes Mosanna's positive Phase 1 MOSAIC readout (September 2026), VectorY's expansion of the PIONEER-ALS trial, a new CSO at Numab, and Corsera Health's Endpoints 11 recognition.
Portfolio Highlights
The current portfolio on the website lists 70 companies. Notable names include NewAmsterdam Pharma (Nasdaq: NAMS), Dyne Therapeutics, Bicycle Therapeutics, BioInvent, Replimune, MapLight Therapeutics, Verdiva Bio, Vor Bio, AIRNA, Beacon Therapeutics, Prilenia Therapeutics, Numab Therapeutics and enGene. Planetary Health holdings include Genomines, eeden, PACT, Solasta Bio, Tropic Bio and Novameat. Realised investments listed on the Ventures page include Allecra Therapeutics, Achilles Therapeutics, ARMGO Pharma, Escalier Biosciences, Inversago Pharma, Mariana Oncology, Oxitope, Oxular, Oxyrane and Staten Biotechnology.
Team
- Dirk Kersten, Managing Partner
- Geert-Jan Mulder, Managing Partner
- Sander Slootweg, Managing Partner
- Martien van Osch, Managing Partner and CFO
- Jon Edwards, General Partner
- Nanna Lüneborg, General Partner
- Marco Boorsma, General Partner
- Jasper Bos, General Partner
- Joy Faucher, General Partner
- Alexander Hoffmann, General Partner
- Dmitrij Hristodorov, General Partner
- Wouter Joustra, General Partner
- Rogier Rooswinkel, General Partner
- Robbert van de Griendt, General Partner, IR and Impact
- Machteld Groeneveld, Chief Legal Risk and Compliance Officer
- Tim Lohoff and Vanessa Carle, Principals (Ventures)
Decision Process and Founder Preferences
Decisions run through a partnership of managing and general partners across strategy-specific teams. Forbion typically takes active board involvement and frequently co-founds companies around sourced pharma or academic assets and proven management teams. It favors experienced biotech management and strong scientific founders, with a European center of gravity but substantial US activity (Boston office, US portfolio companies).
Geographic Focus
Europe first (the Netherlands, Germany, UK, Switzerland, Belgium, Scandinavia, France, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Austria) with significant North America (US, Canada) and Israel exposure across the portfolio.
Gaps
AUM is stated only in euros (€5bn+), so no USD figure is stored. Typical check size, decision timeline and warm-intro requirements are not published.