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Lauxera Capital Partners has closed its second growth fund at €520m (US$605m), surpassing its €500m hard cap and nearly doubling the size of its debut vehicle, as investor appetite continues to build for commercial-stage European Healthtech companies.
The oversubscribed fundraise was completed less than 18 months after first close and attracted both returning and new LPs – including Morgan Stanley lnvestment Management, Bpifrance, EIF (European lnvestment Fund), Sagard, Flextone, Swen Capital Partners and Malakoff Humanis – with more than 90% of existing investors from Fund I recommitting.
The Paris- and San Francisco-based investment firm plans to deploy the capital across 12-15 companies, with individual investments of €20m-€50m spanning minority and majority positions in commercial-stage Healthtech businesses. Target sectors include medical devices, digital health, healthcare software and data, diagnostics, life science tools, and pharma and medtech services.
Speaking to lnvestors in Healthcare, Lauxera co-founder Pierre Moustial said the latest fundraise reflects growing recognition that Europe’s challenge is not one of innovation, but scaling companies internationally.
“We don’t have a problem with start-ups in Europe, we have a problem of scale-up,” he said. “Growth is becoming more understood by LPs. lnvestors increasingly see the value of building bigger companies from strong European technologies and scaling them globally, especially in the US.”
Moustial said growth equity occupies an increasingly attractive position between venture capital and buyout investing because investors are backing commercial execution rather than binary clinical outcomes.
“You are not betting on technologies. You are not betting on clinical risk,” he said. “You are betting on commercial scale-up, which is different.”
He argued that Europe’s fragmented healthcare markets continue to create structural barriers for scaling Healthtech businesses. Companies face lengthy reimbursement pathways in domestic markets before encountering a patchwork of national regulations across Europe, making US expansion increasingly attractive.
“The US remains unequivocally the most attractive market for scaling European Healthtech companies,” the firm said in the press release announcing the close.
According to Moustial, however, many European founders underestimate the complexity of the US market.
“Most understand they need to enter the US because it is the world’s largest healthcare market, with one FDA and generally faster reimbursement pathways,” he said. “But they often think the US is simply ‘Europe, but bigger’. lt isn’t. The rules, culture and mindset are completely different.”
