Family offices ramp up deals in June with bets on biotech and pharma
A biotech startup backed by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt raised $56 million from investors including the billionaire family office that supported BioNTech.
A version of this article first appeared in CNBC's Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide to the high-net-worth investor and consumer. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox. For investment firms of the ultra-wealthy, deal-making is heating up. In June, family offices made 60 direct investments in companies, ending three straight months of declining deal activity, according to data provided exclusively to CNBC by Fintrx. June's tally is an improvement over the 47 deals recorded in May , though it marks a 40% drop on a year-over-year basis, per the private wealth platform. June saw a few buzzy deals in entertainment. The investment firm for Nintendo's founding family bought a minority stake in indie film studio K2 Pictures for an undisclosed amount. Yamauchi No. 10 Family Office is also investing in the startup's film production fund, a Hollywood-esque financing strategy that is rare in Japan. Stateside, Blackstone billionaire David Blitzer joined a $20 million fundraise for Ballers, a members club for sports including padel and virtual golf. A slew of professional athletes, including tennis Hall of Famer Andre Agassi, also participated in the round. But biotech and health care proved to be more popular themes, accounting for nine deals by heavy-hitter family offices. Narcan ingredient maker Antheia raised a $56 million Series C with investors including family offices Athos KG and S-Cubed Capital. Athos KG's principals, billionaire twins Andreas and Thomas Strüngmann, made their fortune with generic drugmaker Hexal and invested in Covid vaccine maker BioNTech . S-Cubed Capital is helmed by billionaire and former Sequoia partner Mark Stevens. Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt's Hillspire has been an investor in Antheia since its $73 million Series B in 2021. Scientist-turned-entrepreneur Christina Smolke co-founded Antheia in 2015 after discovering how to bioengineer yeast to manufacture opioids for medical use in less than two weeks. Typically, the process of producing hydrocodone from opium poppies can take two years between farming, harvesting and extraction, Smolke said in an interview with CNBC. Smolke, a Stanford professor with a Ph.D. in chemical engineering, told Inside Wealth that family offices, which tend to invest with long investment horizons, are well suited for biotechnology investments. "These are complicated problems. There's not a sort of a quick patch that we're going to put on this," she said. "Family offices tend to be able to be patient with their investments, and that aligns really well with the cycles and the timelines that are needed for biotech and to bring new products, new technology and new transformation, at a system level, to healthcare." In late 2024, Antheia launched its first product, thebaine, a key ingredient in overdose reversal medication Narcan. The recent fundraise will allow Antheia to expand production from Europe to the U.S. and bring other products to market. The Menlo Park, California-based firm is developing 70-plus pharmaceutical ingredients necessary for medicines used to treat cancer, bacterial infections, seizures and other conditions. "The core aspect that's shared through all of this is being able to rebuild these essential medicine supply chains so that drug shortages become a thing of the past and access, globally, becomes more equitable," she said. For impact-driven family offices, biotechnology can serve as a familiar frontier, Smolke said. "It can speak to investors very directly," she said. "I think everybody has actually directly experienced challenges with drug shortages â even in the U.S. â of going to the supermarket and having cold medicines out of stock or not being able to get certain antibiotics."
