Incubators in north and south excel

Cumulative investment in incubator companies in the past decade has exceeded $2 billion.

6 April 08 10:7, Merav Ankori

Kiryat Shmona-based Meytav Technological Enterprises Innovation Center Ltd. and Sde Boker-based Iris Ventures (formerly Am-Shav Technology Center) won the awards for outstanding incubators for 2007. They are Israel's northernmost and southernmost incubators, respectively. The awards were announced last week at the annual incubator conference.

This is the second time in three years that Meytav won the award, and Iris Ventures' second consecutive win. Biomedix Incubator Ltd. (TASE:BMDX) owns Meytav and Maayan Ventures Ltd. (TASE:MAYN) owns Iris Ventures.

The conference also handed out awards for outstanding incubator projects for 2007. This year's winners were APM Automated Solutions Ltd., which uses 3D mapping to measure the level, volume, and mass of materials inside a silo or open bin; NeuroDerm Ltd., which is developing transdermal drug delivery systems for the treatment of Parkinson's and other neurological disorders; and Regentis Biomedicals Ltd., which has developed a tissue regeneration substrate called Gelrin.

Both Meytav and Iris Ventures raised $25 million dollars in private investment for companies that graduated from them in the past three years. Altogether, incubators raised $435 million in private investment for their projects, including $75 million in first round investments.

Technical Incubators Program director Rina Pridor said, "The program is achieving its targets for cumulative private investment in graduate companies. Cumulative investment in the past decade has exceeded $2 billion. The graph of private investment has risen steadily since 1998, and by the end of 2007, reached nearly five times the government's investment in the incubators' budget. The government is constantly cutting its investment in the program."

Pridor asked, "Does the fact that incubator companies have raised so much money mean that there is no need for the program?" She answered her own question: "The answer is no, because the investor that we bring to the program would not have put their money in it two years earlier, when the projects were immature. That is the role of the state; it is the essence of the incubator program. We're making something from nothing. We take something that would otherwise disappear and succeed in creating technologies and raising money for them."

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on April 6, 2008

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