The Trendlines Ltd. (SI:42T) incubator has announced that it raised $10.3 million on the Singapore stock exchange. The company's existing investors took part in the round, including German company B. Braun, which maintained the proportion of its stake. The other investors were mainly institutions and corporations from Singapore.
The money was raised at 0.14 Singaporean dollars per share, a 13% discount on the market price on the day of the offering. Despite the discount, the company's share rose after the offering, and is now 21% higher than the share price in the offering, reflecting a market cap of 86 million Singaporean dollars ($63 million). Since Trendlines' IPO in Singapore in 2015, the company's share price has fallen 44%. Most of this decline occurred shortly after the IPO, and the share has remained stable ever since.
Trendlines said that the proceeds from the offering would be used to participate in later investment rounds in its main holdings and for investment in new companies. Trendlines will also focus its business, streamline, and enhance its value, and is considering the distribution of a dividend. The company's revenue totaled $6.6 million in the first half of 2017, mainly from the sale of BioSight. Trendlines had $13.4 million in cash as of the end of the second quarter of 2017 (before the offering).
Trendlines operates three technology incubators: a medical equipment incubator and an agri-tech incubator (both in Israel), and another medical equipment incubator in Singapore. It also has a fund for follow-on investments in mature companies from the incubators, as well as a laboratory for innovative cooperative ventures with large companies. Trendlines has significant holdings in 46 companies. Its founders are partners Todd Dollinger and Steve Rhodes, who immigrated to Israel from the US and settled in the Galilee, where they founded their first technology incubator with support from the Israel Innovation Authority (then called the Office of the Chief Scientist). They gradually developed today's Trendlines from this incubator.
Trendlines has achieved seven small-scale exits to date on which it made high-percentage returns: ET View Medical, PolyTouch Medical, Flowsense, Inspiro Medical, InnoLap Surgical, BioSight, and another undisclosed company. Trendlines tried to raise money on the stock exchange in Canada in 2015, since most of its investors are from North America, but the attempt was unsuccessful. Since the company already had all the documents and consultants needed for an offering, it executed a rapid eastward turn and prepared an offering in Singapore. Trendlines had no major business in Singapore at the time, but had partnerships in China. Following its IPO, the company began strengthening its links to the Singaporean market, founded its local incubator, and began cooperating with doctors and innovation leaders in the country.
Among the companies that Trendlines has marked as interesting, to which it will channel most of the money it raised, are Leviticus Cardio, which has developed a device that protects the heart against deterioration while the patient is waiting for a heart transplant; Gordian Surgical, which is developing a device for rapid and easy closing of miniature laparoscopic incisions; ApiFix, which has developed an innovative implant for treatment of juvenile scoliosis; EdenShield, which produces natural material based on extract from desert plants that is used to protect crops from pests; and BioFishency, whose technology helps achieve a significant increase in output from fishponds.
Published by Globes [online], Israel Business News - www.globes-online.com - on November 1, 2017
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