Israeli company Integra Holdings, which invests in life science innovations originating from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, today announced the first closing of a $25 million financing round, led by Singapore-based Temasek, which invested $15 million, and joined by UK-based Arie Capital, with an initial investment of $2 million. The Israeli Teachers’ and Kindergartens’ Study Funds, one of Integra’s current shareholders, also participated in this financing round.This brings the total raised by the fund in the five years of its existence to $40 million.
The funds raised will be used to advance Integra Holdings’ portfolio companies and to create new companies, based on promising technologies developed at the Hebrew University.
Another large investor in Integra is Yissum, the Technology Transfer Company of the Hebrew University. Yissum founded Integra in 2012, and transferred to it its holdings in six life sciences companies that were founded on the basis of technology developed at the Hebrew University. Since then, the fund has invested in several more companies, all of them commercializations by Yissum of technologies developed at the university.
Yissum has a parallel fund that invests in agricultural technologies.
Integra Holdings CEO Dr. Liana Patt, who formerly managed early-stage investments at Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (NYSE: TEVA; TASE: TEVA), says that two portfolio companies of the fund have reached advanced stages. One is Ayana Pharma, founded on the basis of research by Prof. Yechezkel Barenholz, inventor of cancer treatment Doxil. Ayana Pharma is awaiting FDA approval for a cancer drug that is an improvement on Doxil. The other company is Atox Bio, which is developing host-directed therapeutics to control life-threatening infections, and has a product currently in Phase III trials.
"The fund receives a first right of refusal from Yissum in examining new technologies, and has a very structured process for doing so," says Patt.
“This latest round of investment will allow more breakthrough discoveries to realize their potential and reach a broader community of entrepreneurs, investors and industry partners” said Integra Holdings CFO Lior Buchman.
Temasek is an investment company with a net portfolio value of $197 billion (as of 31 March 2017), which operates through 10 international offices and has a staff of over 630 people globally.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on September 27, 2017
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