Avesthagen, India’s first agricultural biotech company, is looking to European and US VCs to raise Euros 20 million in a third round of private funding.
To date the company, based in Bangalore, has raised around Euros 10 million from Indian sources, but is now looking to access money abroad as a route to lifting its profile, in advance of listing in India.
Avesthagen was founded in 1998 by CEO Villoo Patell, who did her PhD at Louis Pasteur University in Strasbourg, France. The company had turnover of Euros 3.7 million in the year to March 2006.
From its roots in agbiotech, the company has diversified into nutraceuticals and biosimilars, and also has an R&D unit that carries out contract research.
The money raised in the third round will be spent on a pilot scale manufacturing plant for biopharmaceuticals and a plant extraction facility for nutraceuticals.
Avesthagen has collaborations with a number of European companies including the Swiss food company Nestle Nutrition SA, for the development of plant-based bioactives as food ingredients. The products are based on traditional Indian plant remedies, with the first, for treating metabolic disorder syndrome, due to be launched by Nestle in 2007.
On the agbiotech side, Avesthagen is partnered with Limagrain SA of Clermont-Ferrand, France, the world’s fourth largest seeds company for joint product development. Other partnerships include one with the French diagnostics company bioMerieux SA for the development of diagnostics for tuberculosis.
The biosimilars programme is being developed in a joint venture with Cipla Ltd., of Mumbai, one of India’s leading drug companies.
Avesthagen expects to go public in 2008. India law means it must list first on its home market, but the company says it will look for an international listing also.
To date the company, based in Bangalore, has raised around Euros 10 million from Indian sources, but is now looking to access money abroad as a route to lifting its profile, in advance of listing in India.
Avesthagen was founded in 1998 by CEO Villoo Patell, who did her PhD at Louis Pasteur University in Strasbourg, France. The company had turnover of Euros 3.7 million in the year to March 2006.
From its roots in agbiotech, the company has diversified into nutraceuticals and biosimilars, and also has an R&D unit that carries out contract research.
The money raised in the third round will be spent on a pilot scale manufacturing plant for biopharmaceuticals and a plant extraction facility for nutraceuticals.
Avesthagen has collaborations with a number of European companies including the Swiss food company Nestle Nutrition SA, for the development of plant-based bioactives as food ingredients. The products are based on traditional Indian plant remedies, with the first, for treating metabolic disorder syndrome, due to be launched by Nestle in 2007.
On the agbiotech side, Avesthagen is partnered with Limagrain SA of Clermont-Ferrand, France, the world’s fourth largest seeds company for joint product development. Other partnerships include one with the French diagnostics company bioMerieux SA for the development of diagnostics for tuberculosis.
The biosimilars programme is being developed in a joint venture with Cipla Ltd., of Mumbai, one of India’s leading drug companies.
Avesthagen expects to go public in 2008. India law means it must list first on its home market, but the company says it will look for an international listing also.
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