Beyond BioNTech: Inside the Strüngmann Portfolio in 2026 (Antheia, AAVantgarde, Doctolib, and the Next Decade)

Jörn Menninger
1 day ago
8 min read

BioNTech today (April 2026) is worth ~€22.8B at €86/share — and the Strüngmann ~43.5% stake (~€10B) plus the November 2023 divestments ($110M sold + $220M planned) refunded Athos for the next biotech decade. Their 2025–2026 deal flow — Antheia ($56M+$24M), AAVantgarde Bio ($141M Series B), AMSilk ($61M), Bambusa Therapeutics, Doctolib, Formycon (26.6%) — signals where DACH biotech goes next.

The 2023 BioNTech partial divestment closed a chapter for Andreas and Thomas Strüngmann. It also opened the next one — and the question for anyone watching DACH biotech is what they're funding now.

The answer matters beyond Strüngmann fan-club analysis. The brothers' portfolio choices function as a high-information signal about where the next decade of European biotech and life-sciences goes. Athos Service has shown 17 years of judgment that's been right far more often than wrong. When they put €141M into AAVantgarde Bio's Series B in November 2025, it's worth asking why gene therapy, why now, and why this team. When they participate in Antheia's January 2026 Series C-II, it's worth asking the same about cell-free biomanufacturing.

This piece walks through the post-BioNTech Athos portfolio in 2026, the thematic patterns inside it, and what it implies for everyone else operating in DACH biotech and adjacent. Cluster closing piece.

This is part 4 of the Strüngmann Cluster on Startuprad.io. Sits inside Investors: Capital Behind DACH Tech.

Executive Summary

Athos Service's post-BioNTech portfolio is concentrated in four themes: (1) gene therapy and AAV delivery (AAVantgarde, others); (2) AI-driven biology and biomanufacturing (Antheia); (3) targeted oncology platforms (Immatics, Tubulis); (4) biosimilars and platform health (Formycon, Doctolib). Real-estate diversification (Fünf Höfe Munich, Villa Kennedy Frankfurt) provides defensive ballast. The thematic concentration tells you what the brothers think the next decade looks like — and a Strüngmann thesis is rarely a contrarian one for long.

Key Takeaways

Antheia — cell-free biomanufacturing. Two rounds: $56M (Jun 2025) + $24M (Jan 2026).
AAVantgarde Bio — Italian gene-therapy / dual-AAV platforms. $141M Series B (Nov 2025).
AMSilk — Munich-based bioengineered silk for medical and industrial applications. €52M / $61M financing led by ATHOS / AT Newtec (Sep 2025) — note AT Newtec is yet another distinct vehicle in the Strüngmann structure.
Bambusa Therapeutics — RNA / next-gen gene therapy platform. 2025.
Doctolib — French digital-health platform. Secondary position (2024-2025).
Formycon — German biosimilars. Athos is the largest shareholder (~26.6% via ~€650M strategic asset merger, 2022).
Immatics (Tübingen, T-cell receptor therapies) — Athos participated in a $104M PIPE in 2020 alongside the company's reverse-merger public listing.
Tubulis (Munich, antibody-drug conjugates) — long-held Athos position.
iOmx Therapeutics (Munich, novel checkpoints) — Athos led €65M Series B in 2021.
AiCuris — anti-infectives (Bayer spin-off, 2006); first drug approval letermovir (2017, licensed to Merck).
WS Audiology — €2.15B Siemens Audiology acquisition (2014, with EQT); merged with Widex into a global hearing-aid leader.
Real estate — Fünf Höfe Munich (~€750-800M), Villa Kennedy Frankfurt; primarily through Santo Holding.
NexWafe + SuppreMol — diversification into solar wafers (clean tech) and autoimmune treatments respectively.
BioNTech's own M&A in 2024 — the company itself acquired CureVac ($1.25B) and Biotheus ($1B) to diversify pipeline; Strüngmanns remain the largest shareholders shaping that capital allocation.
Continuing institutional commitments — €25M / 10 years to UnternehmerTUM + TUM Venture Labs; €100k/year Strüngmann Award; Ernst Strüngmann Institute Frankfurt.

Theme 1: Gene therapy and AAV delivery

The November 2025 AAVantgarde Bio Series B was a $141M round led by international healthcare investors with Athos Service participating. AAVantgarde's dual-AAV platform addresses one of the central engineering constraints of adeno-associated-virus gene therapy: cargo-size limits. Their approach lets a therapeutic gene be delivered across two AAV vectors and reassembled in target cells — relevant for ocular diseases, rare neurological conditions, and other indications where conventional single-AAV delivery falls short.

Why does Athos care? Two reasons. First, gene therapy is in the same "platform technology applied to multiple indications" pattern that BioNTech demonstrated with mRNA. The platform compounds across applications. Second, the gene-therapy investment landscape has rationalised after the 2021-2023 sell-off — entry multiples are reasonable for the first time in years.

The bet isn't on AAVantgarde alone. It's on a category Athos expects to compound for the next decade.

Theme 2: AI-driven biology and biomanufacturing

The January 2026 Antheia Series C-II participation signals Athos's interest in cell-free and synthetic-biology biomanufacturing. Antheia produces complex pharmaceutical ingredients (notably opioid alternatives and other plant-derived compounds) using engineered yeast — bypassing both poppy cultivation and conventional chemical synthesis.

The category — "biology as a manufacturing platform" — has been talked about since the early 2010s. The Strüngmanns' interest now suggests they think the unit economics finally work. If they're right, Antheia is positioned in a category with multi-decade industrial implications. If they're wrong, the bet is sized appropriately to be a learning loss.

This is the right risk profile for a Strüngmann bet: high upside, contained downside, in a category where the science can be evaluated by people who actually understand the science.

Theme 3: Targeted oncology platforms (the long-held positions)

Immatics (Tübingen, Germany) and Tubulis (Munich) are long-held Athos positions in next-generation oncology. Immatics works on T-cell receptor therapies; Tubulis on antibody-drug conjugates. Both are platform-pattern companies — meaning they're not betting on a single drug but on a platform that produces many.

These positions weren't recent acquisitions; they were anchored years before either company was a name in international oncology. They're the same playbook as BioNTech in 2008: anchor a platform-pattern company in a category the brothers can evaluate, hold through pre-clinical and Phase I/II, let the science prove out.

Both are now late-stage clinical-development companies. Whether either becomes "the next BioNTech" depends on factors no one can predict. What's predictable is that the Strüngmann anchor freed the founders to run real Phase III programmes without exit-pressure interference. That's the architectural advantage in motion.

Theme 4: Biosimilars (Formycon) + digital health (Doctolib) + adjacencies (AMSilk, Bambusa, NexWafe)

Formycon is a German biosimilars developer in which Athos holds a ~26.6% stake acquired via a ~€650M strategic asset merger in 2022. Biosimilars are the post-Hexal generics analogue: high-volume, regulated, increasingly important as biologic patents expire. The Strüngmanns have unique pattern recognition for this category — Hexal was generics, Formycon is its biologics-era successor.

Doctolib is a different kind of bet: digital-health platform, French, primarily a network-effects play (booking and care coordination). Athos took a position via a secondary round in 2024-2025. This is closer to a thematic bet on European digital-health platforms reaching scale than a domain-expertise bet on biology — and it's appropriately sized.

AMSilk ($61M, Sep 2025) — Munich-based bioengineered silk proteins for medical and industrial use. Adjacent to biotech but tangential to the core medicine thesis. Bambusa Therapeutics (2025) — next-gen RNA / gene therapy platform, in the same category-bet logic as AAVantgarde. NexWafe — clean-tech solar wafers, the brothers' clearest genuine non-life-sciences diversification, signalling some appetite for adjacent deep-tech where the engineering is evaluable.

Theme 5: BioNTech's own M&A — the second-order capital cycle

BioNTech itself, with the brothers as the largest shareholders shaping capital allocation, executed two major 2024 acquisitions: CureVac for $1.25B and Biotheus for $1B. These are the brothers' indirect bets — capital they don't deploy directly, but capital they shape via the BioNTech board position. The pattern: when BioNTech's own treasury (built from COVID-era revenue) is deployed into pipeline acquisitions, that's the second-order Strüngmann capital cycle in motion.

CureVac is itself a Strüngmann-adjacent company — Tübingen-based mRNA, originally a Dietmar Hopp investment. The acquisition consolidates a major piece of European mRNA capability into BioNTech, removing a potential rival and adding pipeline depth.

What the portfolio implies for the rest of DACH biotech

Three signals worth absorbing if you're operating in this ecosystem:

1. The platform-company thesis is intact. Every major Strüngmann bet (BioNTech mRNA, Immatics TCR, Tubulis ADC, AAVantgarde dual-AAV, Antheia synthetic biology) is a platform that produces multiple products. They're not picking single-asset stories. Founders who can credibly position their company as a platform-pattern (vs single-asset) will get more interest from operator-grade family offices than founders who can't.

2. Late-stage de-risking is the new Strüngmann sweet spot. AAVantgarde Series B and Antheia Series C-II are not seed rounds. The brothers are buying into companies that have de-risked the technical case. Pre-seed and seed deals in DACH biotech increasingly need to find different anchor capital — UnternehmerTUM's role becomes more important, and the brothers' €25M commitment there is consistent with this division of labour. The institutional layer Klatten built and the Strüngmanns now reinforce is producing visible outcomes — Flix, Celonis, e-bot7 (sold to LivePerson), ProGlove (€500M Monster Exit), Xaver Lehmann's post-exit story, and many others — and that's the founder pipeline that produces the next Şahin and Türeci for Athos to back at later stages.

3. Real estate as ballast, not as a strategic pivot. The Fünf Höfe and Villa Kennedy deals (primarily through Santo Holding) are diversification, not a thesis change. The brothers aren't becoming real-estate investors. They're balancing the portfolio risk profile while keeping the operational focus on biotech via Athos.

Where the next decade goes

If the Strüngmann thesis is right — that platform technologies (mRNA, gene therapy, synthetic biology, ADCs, biosimilars) compound across multiple decades — then DACH biotech in 2035 looks meaningfully different than DACH biotech in 2025. The companies anchored today by Athos and similar family offices will be the public-market biotech leaders ten years out. Some will fail. Most will produce useful science even when they don't produce monster commercial outcomes. A few will be the next BioNTech.

What makes the model durable is that the Strüngmann edge — operator pedigree + family-office structural patience + Munich ecosystem density — isn't degrading. If anything, the €25M UnternehmerTUM commitment and the €100k Strüngmann Award are reinforcing the founder pipeline that produces the next Şahin and Türeci. The architecture compounds.

That's the close of this Strüngmann Cluster. The brothers don't make news. They make the structure that makes news inevitable.

FAQ

What is Athos Service investing in now (2025-2026)? Recent confirmed investments include Antheia (Series C-II, Jan 2026), AAVantgarde Bio (Series B, $141M, Nov 2025), Doctolib (secondary, 2024-2025), and ongoing positions in Immatics, Tubulis, and Formycon (~26.6% via €650M). Real-estate diversification includes Fünf Höfe Munich (€750-800M) and Villa Kennedy Frankfurt.

Why are the Strüngmanns moving into gene therapy? Because gene therapy is in the same "platform technology applied to multiple indications" pattern that worked for them with BioNTech and mRNA. Platforms compound across applications. The gene-therapy entry multiples have also rationalised after the 2021-2023 sell-off, making this a reasonable entry window.

What's Antheia and why did Athos invest? Antheia produces complex pharmaceutical ingredients using engineered yeast — bypassing conventional chemical synthesis. The category ("biology as a manufacturing platform") has been talked about since the 2010s. The Strüngmann interest in 2026 suggests they think the unit economics finally work.

What does the Strüngmann portfolio signal about DACH biotech? Three signals: (1) the platform-company thesis is intact — Strüngmanns back platforms, not single assets; (2) the brothers are increasingly investing at later, de-risked stages, leaving earlier-stage biotech to UnternehmerTUM and similar institutional layers; (3) real estate is ballast, not a thesis pivot.

Are they slowing down? No evidence of it. At 76, the brothers are still actively allocating, reinforcing the founder pipeline (UnternehmerTUM, Strüngmann Award), and making category-defining bets on a roughly annual cadence. Generational succession will become a question over the next decade, but the operating tempo is intact.

More on Startuprad.io

Read the rest of the Strüngmann Cluster: how the brothers built Germany’s most important biotech family office, the Hexal exit playbook, and Athos Service vs venture capital. See also our Twin Billionaires hub and the Investors: Capital Behind DACH Tech pillar.

About the Author

Joern "Joe" Menninger is the founder of Startuprad.io, Europe's leading English-language startup media platform covering the DACH region. With 740+ podcast episodes and over 1 million annual streams. Connect on LinkedIn

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