SPECIAL ISRAELVALLEY. En plein milieu de l’été un accord important a été signé entre le Suisse Roche et aMoon , basée à Raanana en Israël, et qui a été fondée récemment par Marius Nacht (1) et (2) et le Dr. Yair Schindel. L’accord porte sur un programme d’investissement dans des startups israéliennes « early stage ».
Roche Holding (F. Hoffmann-La Roche), est une entreprise pharmaceutique suisse, et l’une des principales entreprises mondiales du secteur. La société présente depuis 2004 deux sections parallèles, le secteur pharmaceutique et le secteur diagnostic.
(1) aMoon, une société israélienne spécialisée dans les technologies de la santé et les sciences de la vie, est devenue le plus important fonds de capital-risque du pays, après avoir collecté 660 millions de $ d’investissements. Cofondé par le milliardaire Marius Nacht, aMoon cherche à investir dans les sociétés des sciences de la vie avancées et de la santé numérique. Le fonds est devenu l’un des plus importants fonds pour la santé et les sciences de la vie en dehors des États-Unis. Ce fonds a été lancé en avril 2018.
(2) Marius Nacht 1962– est un entrepreneur, activiste social et investisseur israélien. En 1993, Nacht, avec Gil Shwed et Shlomo Kramer, a co-fondé la société de cybersécurité Check Point Software, célèbre pour être l’une des premières à proposer un pare-feu commercial.
LE PLUS. Swiss health care giant Roche is partnering with aMoon, a leading Israeli health tech and life sciences venture capital firm, to launch a pioneering investment program aimed at helping early-stage Israeli startups.
The joint venture, called “StarFinder Lab,” will be based out of aMoon’s headquarters in the central Israeli city of Ra’anana and is geared towards accelerating the development of new diagnostic technologies “that address global health care challenges,” the companies said in a statement released on Monday.
Aside from mentorship and strategic collaborations, the venture will also offer financial backing for nine startups that will be selected to participate.
“The program goes well beyond mentorship and includes funding, both on the side of aMoon and Roche, which is a big deal for startups,” Roy Wiesner, managing director at aMoon, told The Media Line.
“This funding will allow them to complete this program, reach their proof of concept and meet milestones,” he added, noting that several millions of dollars cumulatively would be invested into participating teams in the coming three years.
According to Wiesner, the goal of the program is to foster companies that address the “real needs of the global health care community.” The collaboration with Roche emerged out of the latter’s interest in tapping into Israel’s booming health tech ecosystem.
“In Israel, out of around 8,500 startups we have about 1,700 to 1,800 startups in the life sciences and health tech,” Wiesner affirmed. “Israel is a global health tech life sciences hub so I think it was very natural for [Roche] to look into Israel.”
Applications for the StarFinder Lab accelerator program are slated to open in October.
Alongside a physical office space in Ra’anana, entrepreneurs taking part will also have access to Roche and aMoon’s expertise, leading industry stakeholders and in-depth market data. While Wiesner expects that the majority of those taking part in the program will be in their early stages of development, other companies will also be encouraged to apply.
Among the kinds of technologies the project hopes to cultivate are digital health and disruptive artificial intelligence-driven data solutions. (https://themedialine.org)
