About 20 Israeli startups from the field of life sciences biotechnology and medical equipment, will participate in a roadshow in the US in April. The aim of the visit is to meet with leading North American companies and check possibilities for future cooperation, as well as to meet with investment firms and promote the startups’ next round of financing.
The BIRD (Binational Industrial Research and Development) Foundation, Israeli Industry Center for R&D (Matimop) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) are leading the roadshow activities in Israel. The event in the US will be managed by the Israeli government economic attache in North America.
The event will last for four days and include presentations, workshops and meetings with leading companies in these fields in four East Coast cities: New York, Boston, Princeton and Baltimore. Each Israeli company will have the opportunity to present itself and its field of activity in all of the four cities. One-on-one meetings will be arranged between Israeli startups and some of the US companies, as well as networking meetings aimed at broadening the connection between developing life science industries in Israel and the leaders of the field in the US.
The event was organized in light of the success of a similar roadshow organized about two years ago. Many leading companies participated in the previous roadshow, including the pharmaceutical company Merck, the giant consumer products and pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson, General Electric, dozens of investment firms and venture capital funds, and other companies.
“As part of the preparations for the event, we directly approached senior executives of leading biotechnology and medical equipment companies in the U.S. and invited them to participate in the roadshow, targeting those companies which specialize in application markets relevant to the Israeli companies” explains BIRD Foundation programs director Uri Attir. “In light of the successful experience in 2003, when hundreds of American companies participated in the event, we are recommending to Israeli startups to take part in the meeting.”
Among the Israeli companies that have already registered for the roadshow are SoluBest, V-target and Optimata. Attir emphasizes that additional companies can still apply to participate in the roadshow;.
During its 27 years, the BIRD Foundation has invested in nearly 700 projects, which have yielded direct and indirect revenues of about $8 billion. The BIRD Foundation supports projects without receiving any rights in the participating companies or in the project itself. The financial assistance is repaid as royalties from sales. The Foundation provides support of up to 50% of a project’s budget, beginning with R&D and ending with the initial stages of sales and marketing. The Foundation shares the risk and does not demand that the investment be repaid if the project fails to reach the sales stage.
The BIRD Foundation works in full cooperation with the Chief Scientist’s Office at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Employment in Israel, and with the US Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on Tuesday, March 08, 2005