Dr. Dalia Megiddo has raised $70 million for her new life sciences fund, 7Health Ventures. Megiddo previously headed InnoMed Ventures, the life sciences arm of Jerusalem Global Ventures (JGV).
Investors in 7Health Ventures include 7 Venture Capital chairperson Ruth Wertheimer-Pick, the daughter of Stef Wertheimer. 7 Venture Capital, founded in 2000, has invested in five IT and general technology companies: Celerica (acquired by Unity Wireless Corporation (Bulletin Board:UTYW), MagInk Display Technologies Inc., RepliWeb Inc., Solidimension Ltd., and Worknowledge LLC (which has closed down).
7Health Ventures will invest in 12 companies, ranging from seed-stage to more advanced stages, with a focus on companies that address significant medical needs, such as heart diseases, obesity, and neurological diseases. The fund will collaborate with leading international medical device companies as well as leading international academic research centers.
Megiddo said, “We are currently negotiating with a senior partner from the industry to join us.”
Megiddo founded Innomed Ventures in 2000. The fund is fully invested. Investments include the first and second rounds of Chiasma Inc. (which raised $44 million in 2005); the first through fifth rounds of Glucon Medical Ltd. (which raised $20 million this year); and Barnev Inc., which recently raised $6 million and has obtained US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for its post-natal development monitoring device.
Before founding Innomed, Megiddo served on the boards of several public companies, including Given Imaging Ltd. (Nasdaq: GIVN; TASE: GIVN) and Elron Electronic Industries Ltd. (Nasdaq: ELRN; TASE: ELRN). She founded a number of media ventures in the medical field and was a researcher and lecturer at the Faculty of Family Medicine at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on September 17, 2007
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