The Biotech Fund Flanders (Dutch: Biotech Fonds Vlaanderen) was founded by the Flemish government in 1994 as an instrument to support the creation of new companies, explicitly in biotechnology. [1] It provides venture capital to biotech companies in Flanders (Belgium). The fund has 21.7 million euro of capital and is managed by the GIMV.
Biotechnology is the broad area of biology involving living systems and organisms to develop or make products, or "any technological application that uses biological systems, living organisms, or derivatives thereof, to make or modify products or processes for specific use". Depending on the tools and applications, it often overlaps with the (related) fields of molecular biology, bio-engineering, biomedical engineering, biomanufacturing, molecular engineering, etc.
Venture capital (VC) is a type of private equity, a form of financing that is provided by firms or funds to small, early-stage, emerging firms that are deemed to have high growth potential, or which have demonstrated high growth. Venture capital firms or funds invest in these early-stage companies in exchange for equity, or an ownership stake, in the companies they invest in. Venture capitalists take on the risk of financing risky start-ups in the hopes that some of the firms they support will become successful. Because startups face high uncertainty, VC investments do have high rates of failure. The start-ups are usually based on an innovative technology or business model and they are usually from the high technology industries, such as information technology (IT), clean technology or biotechnology.
Flanders is the Dutch-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to culture, language, politics and history, and sometimes involving neighbouring countries. The demonym associated with Flanders is Fleming, while the corresponding adjective is Flemish. The official capital of Flanders is Brussels, although the Brussels Capital Region has an independent regional government, and the government of Flanders only oversees the community aspects of Flanders life in Brussels such as (Flemish) culture and education.
Flanders Investment and Trade (FIT) was founded by the Flemish government in 2005. The FIT agency helps Flemish companies expand their business abroad and assists foreign companies in finding Flemish suppliers of quality goods and services. The FIT agency is headed by Claire Tillekaerts.
FlandersBio, founded in 2004, is the networking organisation for the life sciences sector in Flanders and represents and supports close to 300 member companies. The key strategic objectives of FlandersBio are knowledge exchange and valorisation, human capital development, internationalisation of the cluster activities and visibility, familiarisation of the public with products derived from the sector and the further development of a supportive environment for the members of FlandersBio.
The Participatiemaatschappij Vlaanderen (PMV) is an independent organization owned by the Flemish government which supports economic investment initiatives in Flanders.
Agoria is Belgium's largest employers' organisation and trade association. The companies represented by Agoria are active in 8 markets and 5 industries.
The Michigan Life Sciences Corridor (MLSC) is a $1 billion biotechnology initiative in the U.S. state of Michigan.
The Agency for Innovation by Science and Technology was a Flemish agency between 1991 and 2015. It was an externally autonomized agency of the Flemish Government, in charge of innovation policy in Flanders and located in the Ellipse-Building in Brussels.
Gimv (Euronext: GIMB) is a Belgian European investment company with experience in private equity and venture capital. Gimv is listed on Euronext Brussels and manages around 1.6 billion EUR invested in about 50 portfolio companies.
CropDesign is a biotech company located in Ghent, Belgium. The company develops a portfolio of agronomic traits for the global commercial seed markets. It has developed a technology platform to discover genetic traits for the improvement of corn, rice and other plants. Current Managing Director is Juergen Logemann.
The National Fund for Scientific Research (NFSR) was once a government institution in Belgium for supporting scientific research until it was split into two separate organizations:
The Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation is a ministry of the Government of Malaysia that is responsible for science, technology, innovation, space science, chemistry, nuclear, meteorological, standards, atomic energy, remote sensing, design, technology park, biotechnology, astronautics, cyber security, nanotechnology, venture capital, venture debt, AIDS, research. The current minister is Yeo Bee Yin.
Science and technology in Flanders, being the Flemish Community and more specifically the northern region of Belgium (Europe), is well developed with the presence of several universities and research institutes. These are strongly spread over all Flemish cities, from Kortrijk and Bruges in the Western side, over Ghent as a major university center alongside Antwerp, Brussels and Leuven to Hasselt and Diepenbeek in the Eastern side.
BIO.be, the Belgian Association for Bioindustries is a Belgian non-profit organization of companies and professionals involved in biotechnology, and those servicing the biotechnology community. The organization works on innovation and entrepreneurship in the biotech industry. The headquarters of the organization are located in Brussels. The chairman is Philippe Stas (AlgoNomics) and the Secretary General is Hugo Francq.
The Belgian Federal Science Policy Office, known by the acronym BELSPO, is the federal government body responsible for research policy in Belgium. It designs and implements research programmes and networks and manages the participation of Belgium in European and international organisations. BELSPO supervises Belgian federal scientific organisations.
Flanders in Action is a social and economic action programme for the future of Flanders which was established by the Flemish government on 11 July 2006. The objectives have been laid down in the Pact 2020 by the Government of Flanders and all the major social partners. A committee led by Koenraad Debackere monitors the accomplishments of Flanders in Action.
The Brussels Regional Investment Company was founded by the Brussels-Capital Region in 1984 to provide capital to the Brussels-Capital Region industry. The purpose of the SRIB/GIMV is to invest in the equity of unlisted companies.
Signature BioScience Inc. was the first biotechnology company based in San Francisco. It was formed in 1998 but closed in 2003 due to lack of funding. Before Signature was dissolved, it had just completed Phase II trials on Digitoxin, which the company was pursuing as an anti-cancer compound. However, the company's core competency was developing biotechnology tools that would be used to identify highly qualified pre-clinical leads.
Atlas Venture is an early-stage venture capital firm that invests in life sciences startup companies in the U.S.. Atlas is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts where the majority of its investments are located. Atlas rolled out its eleventh biotech fund totaling $350 million in June 2017, after closing its tenth fund in April 2015 with $280 million in commitments.
Francesco De Rubertis is a partner at medicxi, a venture capital firm with offices in London, Jersey and Geneva, having co-founded the firm in February 2016. Prior to that he was a partner at another venture capital firm, Index Ventures, having led the firm's efforts to establish its life sciences practice after joining in 1997.
Third Rock Ventures is a venture capital firm based in Boston, founded in 2007 which invests in biotechnology startups.
Greater Boston, primarily Boston and Cambridge, is home to almost 1,000 biotechnology companies, ranging from small start-ups to billion-dollar pharmaceutical companies. The many universities in the area give the region a large network of scientists.
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