Mérieux Equity Partners has reached the first close of its €150m Mérieux Innovation 2 (MI2) fund and announced a €6m investment in Spanish diagnostics firm deepull as its first deployment.

The fund, which has already secured nearly 50% of its target, continues MxEP’s strategy of investing in early-stage healthcare companies across diagnostics, therapeutics, medtech, and pharma services. MI2 aims to back around 15 EU-based ventures, targeting scalable platform technologies with proof of concept, scientific strength, and reduced binary risk. Initial investments will typically be around €6m, with follow-ons potentially rising to €15m.

“With our continued Innovation strategy, we will target companies with a proof of concept and potential to scale and create value in the long term,” said Valérie Calenda, managing partner and head of Innovation.

MI2’s first investment supports deepull’s €50m oversubscribed Series C round, co-led by Columbus Venture Partners, Panakès Partners, and Mérieux Equity Partners. Other participants included Asabys Partners, Kurma Partners, and additional existing investors.

Founded by Jordi Carrera and Rafel Bru—also co-founders of STAT-Dx (acquired by Qiagen in 2018)—deepull is developing a rapid, automated diagnostic platform capable of detecting nearly 300 pathogens and antimicrobial resistance genes directly from blood samples within one hour. The funding will help advance regulatory approvals and commercialisation.

Source: Investors in Healthcare