The Technion, Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa is to establish a $200 million venture capital fund, which will invest in science and technology companies, mainly related to the university and its alumni. News of the planned new fund was announced by the Technion's technology transfer company, The Technion Research & Development Foundation Ltd. (TRDF) at the closing plenary of the Technion Board of Governors (Board of Trustees).
The new fund will be jointly managed with Hong Kong-based UG Capital Management Ltd. (UGC), the venture capital arm of UGI (United Gain Investment Ltd). The joint management team with offices in Israel and Hong Kong includes Jonathan Mitchell, CY Lau and Thomas Lau of UG Capital Management Ltd., and Eddy Shalev, Dr. Eyal Kishon and Gary Gannot of Genesis Partners. Technion EVP for research and director general of the Technion Research & Development Foundation Ltd. Prof. Wayne D. Kaplan said, "The Technion has been increasing its commercialization activities in recent years and we have already noted many successes in this field, including more than doubling the number of startup companies set up at the Technion through the new Technion DRIVE Accelerator. However, we must not become complacent. This is why we contacted Jonathan Mitchell from UGI, who connected us to investors from Hong Kong headed by CY Lau. We realized that in addition to partners in the US and Hong Kong, we need an excellent team here in Israel, and so we were joined by the founders of Genesis, Eddy Shalev, Dr. Eyal Kishon and Gary Gannot. "You could say we’re doing alchemy here," said Mitchell. "We’ve combined a number of components - the Israeli mind, institutional and private investors, and of course Technion and the local staff - and with all this we will contribute to the welfare of the world."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on June 15, 2017
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