The Skolkovo Foundation and Oxford Bioscience Partners signed the memorandum of understanding. The venture fund will look to invest at least $10 million in Skolkovo.
The Skolkovo Foundation and Oxford Bioscience Partners announced the signing of the memorandum of understanding (MOU). According to the agreement, the American venture fund plans to invest $10 million in technological projects being developed by Skolkovo participant-companies over the next three years.
Like any major national technology development agency, the Skolkovo Foundation sees as one of its missions bridging the funding gap between the seed and later stage projects. Top tier professional venture firms have a special role in this process. Currently, the Foundation signed agreements with 40 investors with aggregate commitments to invest over $500 million in Skolkovo participant-companies.
Since the launch of the investor accreditation program in the middle of 2011, the Skolkovo Foundation and several venture firms have financed 14 Skolkovo projects. The total amount of investments in Skolkovo companies made by the accredited investors to date is over $30 million. Today, Oxford Bioscience Partners will join the list of top tier US-based investors, accredited by the Foundation, which already included firms such as Bessemer Venture Partners and Alloy Ventures.
Under the terms of the agreement, Oxford Bioscience Partners will receive priority access to the database of the Skolkovo Foundation projects and companies, enabling it to select the most promising projects early in their development. Oxford Bioscience Partners will also have the opportunity to refer their existing portfolio companies to Skolkovo. One of such projects, a US-based, pre-IPO oil field biotechnology company, Glori Energy, is already in discussions with Skolkovo about a potential residency status for its R&D subsidiary, based in Russia.
«With this MOU, we expand our connections with the US venture community», said Alexander Lupachev, Chief Investment Officer of Skolkovo Foundation. «The increasing flow of investments into our projects indicates the appreciation by the venture professionals for the quality of our start-up and is a clear sign that there is demand for Russian technology innovation and entrepreneurship in the global market. We are delighted to have Oxford Biosciences Partners join the Skolkovo ecosystem of investors».
«The Skolkovo Foundation streamlines the process for international fund managers to finance early stage technology in Russia. Oxford is excited to be partnering with the Skolkovo Foundation to leverage Russian and US biotechnology innovation with the goal of increasing yield production in mature oil fields in Russia», said Matthew Gibbs, General Partner of Oxford Bioscience Partners. «We look forward to working with Skolkovo’s management, scientists and entrepreneurs to fund investment opportunities as well as co-develop a Glori Energy R&D facility in Moscow».
«Russia is the world’s largest producer of oil and represents the biggest market for our technology», said Stuart Page, Chief Executive Officer of Glori Energy. «We are excited to embark on this important step to establish R&D capabilities in Russia with the Skolkovo Foundation and continue to advance Glori’s technology».
About the Skolkovo Foundation
The Skolkovo Foundation has the mandate from the Russian Government to help accelerate the transformation of Russia from a resource-intensive to an innovation-based economy through strategic partnerships with leading scientists and corporations (currently numbering over 540 companies and start-ups). The Foundation aims to strengthen the links between Russian and international science, technology, education, entrepreneurship and investment communities. To achieve this objective it is overseeing the creation of the Skolkovo Innovation Centre composed of five R&D clusters, a Technopark, the Skolkovo Institute of Technology (a new graduate research University established in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and Skolkovo city, located near Moscow. Together these entities will establish a vibrant eco-system of technology innovation and entrepreneurship. The Foundation is a non-profit organization founded in September 2010 by the Russian Government.
For more information: http://www.sk.ru/en
About Oxford Bioscience Partners
Oxford Bioscience Partners (Oxford) is an early stage venture capital firm that provides equity financing and management assistance to innovative companies within the life sciences, energy and healthcare sectors. We invest primarily in pre-commercial stage companies in the global life science markets or apply novel bio-innovation to existing energy markets, with the goal of developing game changing companies. Founded in 1992, Oxford has raised $1.1 Billion in six venture funds generating 149 portfolio investments with 28 IPOs and 43 M&A liquidity events.
For more information: www.oxbio.com
About Glori Energy
Glori Energy’s mission is to sustainably and efficiently recover billions of barrels of oil trapped in reservoirs using existing oil wells. Glori partners with oil producers to significantly increase their oil production through the deployment of its AERO™ (Activated Environment for Recovery of Oil) System. The system makes use of existing non-potable water sources, optimizing the water quality to activate and sustain the indigenous reservoir microbial life with the desired metabolic activities. The AERO™ System provides a new, viable option to recover previously trapped oil with minimal new footprint or investment.
For more information visit: www.GloriEnergy.com
Press contacts:
Skolkovo
Roman Sherbakov
Tel.: +7 (495) 967 01 48 ext. 2260
+7 916 237 97 69 (mobile)
Fax: +7 (495) 967 01 96
E-mail: rs@sk.ru
Oxford Bioscience Partners
Matthew Gibbs
General Partner
617-357-7474
mgibbs@oxbio.com
Glori Energy Contact
Meredith Frazier
BIGfish PR
glori@bigfishmarket.com
617-713-3800