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Capricorn leads £ 4.5 million investment in Alaska Food Diagnostics Ltd.
24.07.2008 - Capricorn Venture Partners announced today that it led a € 13.4 million capital increase for Fluxome Sciences in Copenhagen, Denmark. Its Capricorn Cleantech Fund will contribute € 5 million to this round of financing.
The DKK 100 million / € 13.4 million capital increase has been secured through a continued strong commitment from current investors SEVENTURE Partners (France), INCUBA Venture (Denmark), VECATA Venture (Denmark) and the addition of one of Europe’s leading cleantech funds, Capricorn Cleantech Fund, managed by Capricorn Venture Partners (Belgium), to the group of shareholders.
”I am very satisfied with the strengthening of our capital foundation and panel of investors”, Chairman of the Board of Fluxome Sciences, Erik Højsholt, says. ”The capital increase of DKK 100 million will provide the capital needed to continue the execution of Fluxome’s ambitious growth strategy.”
Claude J. Stoufs, Senior Investment Manager, CAPRICORN Venture Partners states: ”As a leading European cleantech investor, we are delighted to have successfully closed this significant round of financing in Fluxome Sciences A/S. The area of industrial biotechnology represents an important part of our cleantech investment strategy. We anticipate that Fluxome will become a major player in the field of nutraceutical ingredients based on production by engineered microorganisms. We are comfortable that the current round of financing will greatly contribute to reaching that ambitious objective.” Isabelle de Cremoux, General Partner and Head of Life Sciences Dept at SEVENTURE Partners adds: “Since 2005 SEVENTURE Partners has been the largest shareholder of Fluxome Sciences and one of the most active foreign investors in Denmark. Together with VECATA Venture and INCUBA Venture we have been actively committed to the development of Fluxome Sciences, a very promising company with a unique management team, exceptional technology and a strong R&D pipeline. As a minimum, we expect Fluxome to be equally successful as some of our other industrial biotech portfolio companies like e.g. , Metabolic Explorer [EuroNext Paris: METEX], IPO’ed last year with a market cap at present around € 150 million.”
The capital increase confirms the significant interest venture capital market has shown Fluxome as a result of the company’s very positive development. Three weeks ago, Fluxome announced entering into a strategic partnership agreement with CP Kelco U.S. Inc., a unit of J.M. Huber Corporation, to jointly develop and commercialize fermentation derived resveratrol. The agreement will support accelerating the planned market introduction - expected as early as autumn 2008.
Fluxome’s vision is to become one of the global leading companies in the development, production and marketing of nutraceutical ingredients – a group of compounds with documented health benefits. Nutraceutical ingredients are used in dietary supplements and foods and represent a fast growing market; in 2007 worth a value of US$ 8 billion on ingredients alone. This market is expected to double before 2015.
Besides resveratrol, Fluxome’s pipeline offers a range of other nutraceutical ingredients, amongst others several unsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) of which the first will see market introduction during 2010.
”Our capital increase enables us to continue the company’s successful growth”, says Fluxome’s CEO, Steen Andersen. “We will be developing our technology platform even further and focus on realization of our business strategy objectives. The transaction is an important step in the transformation from a technology platform structure to a product based company. I am extremely pleased with the large interest we have experienced from the global venture environment. This is a clear token of recognition towards our business and long-term strategy documented by the very promising results we have achieved so far through the efforts of our highly motivated team of employees.”
