Sofinnova Partners, a European life sciences venture capital firm and backed by Apollo Global Management Inc., has launched a venture fund focused on digital medicine.

The fund has raised €150 million ($162 million) at its first close, according to Bloomberg News. The strategy follows the minority equity investment by Apollo in May 2022. The alternative asset manager committed to invest as much as €1 billion ($1.1 billion). Under the new strategy, Sofinnova says it has led investments in three Europe-based companies in the digital medicine sector: a €13.8 million ($15 million) series A funding at AI-powered digital health platform Kiro; a €12 million ($13 million) series A round at DeepcOS, which has developed a radiology AI operating system; and a $5 million seed round at BioCorteX, which models drug-bacteria interactions.

“We like to think of ourselves as first movers in this domain,” says Edward Kliphuis, a Sofinnova partner. “We identify early-stage companies with founders that really have the ability to bring the innovations to product market fit.”