The government-owned RVC Seed Fund and KSI Ventures, its corporate partner, have set up a microfund called “the Life Sciences Seed Fund,” announced the website of RVC, Russia’s national fund of funds for innovation that owns the RVC Seed Fund as its investment arm to back start-ups.
The partners have begun with a $620,000 fund, with the lion’s share coming from RVC ($463,000) and the rest from KSI Ventures, an experienced player in the field of investing in Russian innovative early-stage life sciences companies, acting as managing partner for the new fund. This first phase is planned to last two years, and then the partners hope to pump more capital into their effort.
The fund is expected to invest in early-stage life sciences projects in biomed, pharma, cell tech, genome tech, biotech for agriculture, neurotech, as well as bioengineering. The fund will be specifically interested in supporting developers of import substitution focused products, as well as projects that incorporate know-how from biotech and IT, and also from new materials and instrumentation. In addition, the fund will keep an eye on technology developments that may have potential for commercialization in international markets.
«The setup of seed funds jointly with managing partners from the business sector is a strategic priority for the RVC Seed Fund, as on top of financing advanced technologies we thereby create and train new managerial teams for venture funding, a path to developing the very innovation ecosystem which Russia needs so badly," said Alexei Teleshev, the head of the RVC Seed Fund.
http://marchmontnews.com/Finance-Business/Central-regions/21321-Government-teams-up-with-business-support-Russian-life-sciences-projects.html
