Science over narrative
We partner with teams whose edge is genuine biological insight, not a story. We read the papers, talk to the KOLs, run the references, and invest in defensibility that compounds.
Turning Swiss life sciences
into foundational companies.
Invariant Group is a venture capital firm partnering with founders spinning out of the University of Basel, ETH Zürich, EPFL and Europe's leading life sciences institutions. We invest at day zero, when the biology is hard, the team is small, and the ambition is real.
Focus
Therapeutics · Biotech · Medtech · Diagnostics · Digital Health · TechBio
Stage
Pre-seed & Seed · €250k – €2M
Geography
Switzerland first · World-wide
A fund built for founders of hard biology.
Invariant Group exists because the best life sciences doesn't fit in a 12-month roadmap, and the capital it deserves doesn't exist in most European term sheets. We're here to change that.
Switzerland's life sciences engine
Basel, Zürich and Lausanne form one of the densest biomedical research clusters on earth. The University of Basel, ETH, EPFL, FMI, SIB and the medical ecosystem produce founders the rest of Europe is only just discovering.
Day-zero conviction
First-check partners for scientific founders. We back pre-product, pre-incorporation, pre-anything. When the risk is real, the technology is novel, and the upside is generational.
Patient capital
Drugs, diagnostics and platforms take years, not quarters. We structure our fund, our reserves and our relationships to go the distance with founders building therapies and tools that matter.
Where we invest.
We concentrate on areas of life sciences where a scientific breakthrough can rewrite how disease is treated, diagnosed and understood — and where Swiss and European research institutions are producing world-class founders.
- 01
Therapeutics & Drug Discovery
Novel modalities, small molecules, biologics, RNA, cell and gene therapies. Programmes with a clear path to the clinic.
- 02
TechBio & Computational Biology
AI-native drug discovery, foundation models for biology, generative chemistry, lab automation and scientific ML.
- 03
Synthetic & Engineering Biology
Programmable cells, protein engineering, biomanufacturing platforms and the tools that make biology buildable.
- 04
Medtech & Devices
Surgical robotics, neurotechnology, implantables, imaging and the next generation of patient-facing hardware.
- 05
Diagnostics & Precision Medicine
Liquid biopsy, multi-omics, point-of-care, clinical decision support and tools that change how disease is detected and treated.
- 06
Digital Health
Software for clinicians, payers and patients. Platforms that make modern healthcare measurably better.
Research partners we love
- University of Basel
- ETH Zürich (D-BSSE)
- EPFL
- University of Zürich
- Friedrich Miescher Institute
- Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics
- Paul Scherrer Institute
- University Hospital Zürich
How we work with founders.
We aim to be the partner we'd have wanted as founders ourselves: fast, honest, scientifically literate, and genuinely useful when the hard problems show up — at the bench, in the clinic, or with regulators.
- 01
First meeting
A 30-minute call with a partner. No deck required. We want to understand the biology, the founders, and the ambition.
- 02
Scientific deep dive
We spend time with the science: papers, target validation, IP, regulatory path. We involve clinicians and scientific advisors from our network when helpful.
- 03
Conviction & terms
Within two weeks of the first meeting, we give you a clear yes or no. If yes, a clean term sheet. No games.
- 04
After the check
Hands-on when it helps, out of the way otherwise. We support hiring, KOL and pharma introductions, regulatory strategy, follow-on fundraising and the long-haul stuff.
A small, concentrated portfolio.
We make few investments per year and back each of them with conviction. Most of our companies are currently in stealth. We'll share more as they're ready.
- Stealth · Bio-markers discoveryBaselPre-seed2025