Creathor Venture and High-Tech Gründerfonds accelerate growth of SIRION BIOTECH with further investment

Creathor Venture and current investors invest in SIRION BIOTECH and provide further funding.

In addition to Creathor Venture the investors High-Tech-Gründerfonds, KfW, and Bayernkapital also joined the current round to further fund the young Munich based biotech. SIRION’s core competence lies in the development and marketing of adenoviral and lentiviral vector technologies in the field of target validation.

A part of the new proceeds will be used to further promote already developed technologies and services. One focus will be an internationalization strategy to generate further clients in the EU and the US-market, where SIRION already has first prominent clients such as the FDA. In addition the funds will be used to further support the development of new vector-technologies that are essential for the vaccine-industry. First patents were filed in 2010 and cover a technology that will be essential for developing new vaccines against human Cytomegalo-Virus, Human Immundeficiency-Virus or Tuberculosis.

Karlheinz Schmelig, Partner at Creathor Venture states, that the the investment was made due to the current market situation and the recent results of the internal research activities: “SIRION was able to prove both a significant market need and demand for its products and showed that it is able to develop innovative products.”

This statement is somplemented by the management-team, Drs. Jürgen Flach (CEO) and Christian Thirion (CSO): „Due to the current round we will be able to raise the significant sales potential of our pipeline projects and launch new technologies in new markets such as the vaccine-market.

About Creathor Venture
Creathor Venture invests in technology-oriented companies and entrepreneurs from the fields of lifescience, IT, telecommunication, new media, new materials, electronics, nanotechnology and cleantech. With 25 years of experience in the venture capital market, acting as lead investor for more than200 companies and participating in over 20 IPOs we provide not only capital but also industryknowledge, expertise at building companies, and the network to develop a sustainable business model with a globally competitive advantage. The management team at Creathor Venture includes the founder of former Technologieholding, Dr. Gert Köhler as well as Ingo Franz and Karlheinz Schmelig. Examples of successful companies the partners have managed from the first round of financing to IPO are Micronas (SMI), SEZ (SMI), Intershop (Prime Segment), Infovista (NASDAQ, Nouveau Marché), POET (Prime Segment, NASDAQ), Wavelight (Prime Segment),Epigenomics (Prime Segment) and ITN Nanovation (Prime Segment).

Contact:
Ute Molders
CREATHOR VENTURE Management GmbH
Marienbader Platz 1
61348 Bad Homburg
Tel: +49 6172 13 07 20
ute.molders@creathor.de
www.creathor.de

About SIRION BIOTECH
SIRION BIOTECH GmbH is a biotech company that produces genetically modified cells and is a technology provider in the area of viral vector systems. The company founded in 2006 is located in the Innovations- und Gründerzentrum Biotechnologie IZB in Martinsried near Munich. The expert in RNAi technology offers a wide range of more than 100 products and services. Using state-of-the art techniques and assay systems the company offers reliable lead-through service projects in target validation, screening and drug discovery. With its strong expertise in cell line development SIRION BIOTECH serves as a partner for the development and optimization of cell lines for various applications like the production of vaccine or antibodies or the built up of cellular assay systems.

SIRION BIOTECH currently operates projects for most of the major pharmaceutical companies in Europe and USA and has ongoing collaborations with leading academic and governmental research institutes.

Contact:
Dr. Christian Thirion
SIRION BIOTECH GmbH
Am Klopferspitz 19
82152 Planegg/Martinsried
Tel: +49 89 70096199
Thirion@sirion-biotech.de
www.sirion-biotech.de

About High-Tech Gründerfonds
High-Tech Gründerfonds invests venture capital in promising technology companies that turn innovative concepts into viable businesses. Seed financing aims to help start-ups guide their innovation to the prototype or proof-of-concept stage or to market launch. High-Tech Gründerfonds provides seed financing of approximately €500,000. It supports high-tech companies by way of its investment managers and its highly-qualified network of coaches, investors and specialists. In individual cases it can invest up to a total of €2 m per company. The investors in this public private partnership are the German Federal Ministry for Business and Technology, the KfW Banking Group as well as the six industrial groups of BASF, Deutsche Telekom, Siemens, Robert Bosch, Daimler and Carl Zeiss. High-Tech Gründerfonds has an investment volume totalling approx. €272 m.

Contact:
High-Tech Gründerfonds Management GmbH
Marco Winzer
Investment Director
Ludwig-Erhard-Allee 2
53175 Bonn
Tel.:    +49 228 82300-100
Fax:    +49 228 82300-050
info@high-tech-gruenderfonds.de
www.high-tech-gruenderfonds.de