Sofinnova Partners
Sofinnova Partners is a Paris-based life-sciences venture capital firm, founded in 1972, that invests in biopharma, medtech and sustainability. Its water exposure is narrow: through its industrial-biotech arm it has backed one water company in the Leviathan database, Elicit Plant, whose biostimulants cut the water crops need. As of 2025 it manages over €4 billion.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
Sofinnova Partners is one of Europe's oldest life-sciences investors, writing cheques into biotech and medical devices since 1972 and, as of 2025, sitting on more than €4 billion under management across a stack of specialist funds. Water is not what it is known for, and this page should say so plainly: in the Leviathan database Sofinnova reads as an occasional water backer, not a pure-play water fund (a firm that invests in water and nothing else).
Sofinnova Partners runs that thin water exposure through one arm, the Industrial Biotech, or Sustainability, strategy, which points life-sciences money at agriculture, food, chemicals and materials. The single water company it tracks in my data, Elicit Plant, fits that mould exactly: a French agribiotech started in 2017 whose phytosterol biostimulants are built to do one unglamorous, important thing, get crops to grow on less water. Partner Michael Krel sits on its board, and Sofinnova first backed the company at Series A in 2022 and followed on in 2024.
Sofinnova Partners is best read, by a newcomer to water, as a giant generalist whose sustainability thesis occasionally lands on water, rather than a fund hunting water deals. The open question is whether agricultural water efficiency becomes a repeatable theme inside that industrial-biotech book or stays a single, well-chosen bet. Sofinnova has the capital and the patience to do either, and a fifty-year habit of building category leaders in biotech is exactly the muscle a water founder would want behind them.
Water Commitment Score
Compiled from official filings, third-party records, and direct intelligence from investors and founders, in Leviathan · recomputed monthly · as of Jun 2026.
How they invest
Portfolio · 1 water companies
Invests alongside
Highlighted = profiled on (don't) Waste Water.
Frequently asked
- What does Sofinnova Partners invest in?
- Sofinnova Partners invests in life sciences: biopharma, medical devices and digital medicine, plus sustainability through its industrial-biotech strategy spanning agriculture, food, chemicals and materials. Water is a small slice of that sustainability book. In the Leviathan database it tracks one water company, the crop-biostimulant maker Elicit Plant.
- Is Sofinnova Partners a water investor?
- Sofinnova Partners is a generalist life-sciences firm, not a water specialist. Water surfaces only through its sustainability arm. The Leviathan database tracks a single water company, Elicit Plant, a French agribiotech whose biostimulants reduce the water crops consume, backed across two rounds since 2022 rather than from a dedicated water fund.
- Who runs Sofinnova Partners?
- Sofinnova Partners is led by Antoine Papiernik, Chairman and Managing Partner since the 1990s, with Henrijette Richter and Graziano Seghezzi as Managing Partners. The industrial-biotech, or sustainability, strategy where water sits is run by partners Michael Krel, who sits on Elicit Plant's board, and Joško Bobanović.
- Where is Sofinnova Partners based and how much does it manage?
- Sofinnova Partners is headquartered in Paris, France, with offices in London and Milan, and was founded in 1972. As of 2025 it manages more than €4 billion, after raising €1.2 billion over the prior year and closing its flagship Capital XI fund at €650 million in November 2025.
- Is Sofinnova Partners the same as Sofinnova Investments or Sofinnova Ventures?
- No. Sofinnova Partners is the Paris-based European firm. Sofinnova Investments, formerly Sofinnova Ventures, is a separate United States biopharma firm in Menlo Park. They share a 1972 origin and the Sofinnova name but have operated as fully independent firms, with their own capital and teams, for years.