Heznek (the Government Seed Fund), headed by the Chief Scientist, has approved investments totaling NIS 14 million in three start-ups.
Heznek will invest in BiondVax Pharmaceuticals, which is developing a universal anti-influenza vaccination administered nasally. The vaccine is designed to protect for five years against a wide variety of flu strains: both those now existing and future mutations. A team of scientists from the Weizmann Institute of Science, headed by Prof. Ruth Arnon, developed the scientific knowledge used to make the vaccine.
The second approved investment is in Edenbase Ltd., which develops a business intelligence system for handling especially large databases with hundreds of terabytes. The third is in Continuity Software, which develops software tools that enable enterprises to manage their disaster recovery planning (DRP) effectively, ensure that all of an enterprise’s information is protected in accordance with its policy, and make it possible to detect problems in enterprise information systems before they affect the systems’ availability.
Heznek’s rules require matching investment in start-ups by venture capital funds classified as approved investors. In BiondVax’s case, the investor in question is the Kadima High Tech group. The joint investor in Edenbase is JVP Studio, an investment arm of Jerusalem Venture Partners. The matching investor in Continuity Software is Giza Venture Capital.
Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on January 1, 2006