Balufon Completes Initial Fundraising for Its Debut Fund

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Balufon is pleased to announce completion of the initial fundraising of its debut fund, Balufon Opportunity Fund.

The fund is a private equity (“PE”) vehicle offering investors a window into the North American lower middle market; it completed initial fundraise at 60% committed capital with participation from U.S. and Canadian accredited investors. Balufon will raise the outstanding 40% on a rolling basis through Q1-2025. The total committed capital of $700,000 will fund operating expenses related to the 24-month search and diligence for an acquisition target. To avoid dilution, investors will have the right to invest directly, on a pro-rata basis, in the acquisition round.

Primarily targeting U.S. healthcare, Balufon is seeking quality assets with minimum $2 million EBITDA (>15% margin) where there is an opportunity to further build on the capabilities of a business. The proposal contemplates a three- to five-year holding period and offers traditional PE terms.

Outsourced pharma is one of Balufon’s target subsectors and the firm is currently executing a focused thesis in the clinical trial sites subsegment, sourcing assets that align with Balufon’s proprietary 9-point clinical trial site scorecard.

“Pharma services has expanded significantly since the 1980s when biopharma started to outsource processes. The past two decades have seen particular growth as more processes previously completed in-house were outsourced. For instance, 50% of the $100bn U.S. pharma R&D spend in 2022 was outsourced to contract research organizations (“CROs”) and trial sites. This figure is expected to grow year-on-year and approximate 54% in 2030,” said Dr. Femi Giwa of Balufon.

BakerHostetler is legal counsel to Balufon.

About Clinical Trials and Trial Sites

Clinical trials are research studies to test potential treatments in volunteers for efficacy and safety ahead of receiving approval for wider use in the general population. To save time and cost of development, pharmaceutical and biotech companies outsource clinical trial execution to CROs and trial sites to handle patient recruitment and retention, trial administration and data capture.

About Balufon

Balufon Opportunity Fund LLC is a private equity vehicle formed to acquire, operate, govern and grow a lower-middle market company in the U.S. or Canada, primarily targeting investments in U.S. healthcare. It is a manager-managed vehicle and is managed by Balufon Capital LLC.