Supporting the innovators of today for the patient benefit of tomorrow

CARMA FUND I is an early-stage investment fund for advancing the translation of Life Science and Healthcare assets. The fund started off with a First Closing of over €47M in June 2022. It is base in Munich and Frankfurt am Main.

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Investment portfolio

About

CARMA FUND I is an early-stage investment fund for advancing Life Science and Healthcare technologies. The fund started off with a First Closing in June 2022 and has €50M under management. It is based in Munich and Frankfurt am Main.

Our approach

Approach

CARMA FUND I is uniquely suited for young companies and projects from the Life Science and medical space due to an extra-long term, flexible investment modes and its close relationships with leading technology transfer offices and industry partners.

Starting to develop new products and services for the patients’ well-being and medical advancements comes with its unique challenges and opportunities. Biotech/healthcare is a specialist business and as such innovators have often struggled to rope in reliant streams of outside capital necessary for quick and efficient development towards a market entry.

CARMA FUND I believes in supporting these projects to bring out their full potential. CARMA FUND I welcomes applications for funding from all European sources.

Portfolio

O11 biomedical GmbH is a spin-off from the Institute for Applied Medical Engineering, Dept. of Biohybrids & Medical Textiles (BioTex) at RWTH Aachen University | Aachen University Hospital. Their team consists of highly dedicated biologists, physicians and engineers, and is dedicated to developing a treatment for hypercapnia.

O11 Biomedical GmbH

inContAlert is a MedTech start-up developing a wearable to measure the filling level of the urinary bladder. With their sensor technology, body data is captured and analyzed with AI algorithms. The results are visualized within an app and warn patients in time about critical filling levels.

InContAlert GmbH

Genome Biologics are leaders in therapeutic target and drug discovery in cardiovascular and cardiometabolic disease. Their technology platforms seamlessly integrate synergistically to accelerate development of therapies to treat illnesses where no other treatments have proven effective or ever existed.

Genome Biologics

Aignostics started in 2018 within the walls of Charité Berlin and the Berlin Institute of Health, based on years of research conducted by the pathology department of Charité, TU Berlin and Fraunhofer HHI. Following initial incubation, it spun-out of Charité and BIH in 2020, and is now focusing on pioneering computational pathology for pharmaceutical research, clinical trials and CDx development.

Aignostics

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Our Partners

Team

CARMA FUND I’s general partner CARMA FUND Management GmbH is headed by the Managing Partners Christian Leikert and Dr. Martin Raditsch.

Dr. Martin Raditsch

Managing Partner

Martin PhD and General Partner is a founder of CARMA FUND Management GmbH and initiated the fund in his role as managing director of the technology transfer firm Innovectis GmbH. Martin's key role is covering investment decisions the investment team and the general management of the fund. Martin is a molecular biologist by training and holds a PhD from Max-Planck-Institute for medical research. Martin founded and held CEO positions in technology driven companies, served as ASTP president and had tenures as CEO technology transfer offices and as department head at BASF.

Christian Leikert

Managing Partner

Christian is a founder of CARMA FUND Management GmbH and played a crucial role in closing CARMA FUND I. Christian is now a managing partner of the fund and thus responsible for investment decisions and general management. Christian is economist by training, educated at LMU, Munich. Christian had a longstanding career in venture capital with tenures as CEO of Future Capital and Partner at Creathor Venture as well as various board seats.

Dr. Claus Schulte

Senior Investment Manager

Claus is a member of the founding team of CARMA FUND Management GmbH and helped to get the fund off the ground. Claus has a key role in managing the fund’s deal flow related activities as well as supporting the managing partners. Claus is a biologist by training and holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge, UK. Claus previously held various BD positions in the biotech industry, headed a licensing department and enjoyed to set-up new companies.

W. "Ning" Kuankeangpech

Finance Manager

Ning contributes as a Finance Manager to the success of CARMA FUND. She steers accounting and tax processes as well as the cash management and related communication with investors. Next to working for CARMA FUND Ning has gained almost three years professional experience in the Venture Capital environment at Creathor Ventures Management, where she is still part of the team. Prior her current position she was working as a consultant at FTI Consulting Transaction Services in Frankfurt and London and in the accounting department of a group with worldwide operations. Ning holds a master’s degree in Economics from the University of Mainz.

Martin Müller

Senior Investment Manager

Martin joined in October 2023. He plays a main role in managing the fund’s deal flow activities as well as supporting the managing partners. Martin is a physician by background and conducted cardiac imaging research at the Leipzig Heart Center and Harvard Medical School. He started out in radiology residency, before switching into business roles, which included strategy consulting, Private Equity consulting and Philips Ventures, the Corporate VC of Philips.

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50M+

Investment capital

2022

Vintage year

15y+

Term

Industries we invest in

CARMA FUND is investing in opportunities from the Life Science and Healthcare sector.

THERAPEUTICS

A highly successful therapeutics industry has emerged in Europe, with experienced entrepreneurs and world-leading scientists. We see ourselves as an active partner in advancing the development and provide crucial support in ultimately bringing these products to the market.

MEDTECH AND DIAGNOSTICS

Diagnostics are at the forefront of personalized medicine and as such of great interest to us. We also support interesting projects engaged in the development of new medical technologies.

DIGITAL HEALTH

With the advent of digitaltechnologies in the healthcare sector, a new breed of companies is developing: Digital in nature but tackling medical needs that have so far been addressed by pharma, medtech and medical services.

Other

CARMA FUND is open to all areas from the Life Science and Healthcare. This can include for example R&D tools, platform technologies, improvements to the healthcare system or technologies from the white or green biotech sector.