Private credit is getting sliced and diced.
Life sciences specialist Soleus Capital is seeking capital for its first credit fund, according to a regulatory filing. Soleus is best known for its hedge fund, Soleus Capital Master Fund, which has not had a down year since inception. The firm declined to comment.
The firm wants to raise between $250 million and $300 million, and expects the first close of the fund to be in the next few weeks, according to someone who has seen the offering. The fund aims to invest in senior secured loans, asset-backed financing, and senior convertible securities — bonds or preferred equity — in small and midsize companies.
Most of the investments will be in U.S.-based commercial-stage companies, both privately held and publicly traded. Similar to its other funds, the manager will focus on companies primarily in biotech, medtech, diagnostics, and genomics.
One of the key people working on the fund is Benjamin Lund, who joined Soleus as a partner in November 2023. He had previously been a partner at Soleus up until April 2018, according to his LinkedIn profile.
In between his two stints, Lund was executive vice president, corporate development and strategy at Launch Therapeutics, which helps biotech and biopharma companies speed drug candidates to market and connect with investors for development funding. Earlier in his career, Lund worked at Paulson & Co.
According to the source familiar with the offering, Soleus believes there is a big opportunity to provide credit financing given the void left by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and a general pullback in venture capital activity. Other life sciences investment firms have credit funds, including Perceptive Advisors, which began raising money for its fourth credit fund in 2022.
Soleus, which was founded in 2017 by Guy Levy and Steven Musumeci, began operations the following year. In addition to the hedge fund, Soleus is on its third private equity fund.
Levy worked at Paulson & Co. from 2010 to September 2017, most recently as a partner and portfolio manager. Before that, he was an analyst at Shumway Capital and at Warburg Pincus. He began his career at Morgan Stanley in the mergers and acquisitions and health care investment banking divisions.
Musumeci was chief operating officer at Center Pond Management from 2014 to 2017 and HealthCor Management from 2005 to 2013. Both are investment management firms focused on the global health care and life sciences sectors.