BioVeda China gets $10M from Eli Lilly venture fund
BioVeda China, an international VC fund focused on life science in China, raised $10 million from Lilly Asian Ventures, a spinoff of the Eli Lilly venture arm Lilly Ventures. The funds will be invested in local Chinese life-science companies.
From the BioVeda press release:
For the past 12 months, BioVeda China has led a total of more than US$120 Million financing for six companies. In addition, BioVeda provides strategic assistance to its portfolio companies to power their next stage growth.
Prior to this, BioVeda invested US$30 million in 13 companies in the US, China, Singapore and the UK (three of which were founded by Nobel Laureates). Three companies are now listed on NASDAQ, two on the London Stock Exchange main board, and one was acquired by Pfizer in Feb 2005. Since its inception in 2000, BioVeda has been well regarded by its industry peers. BioVeda was selected as one of the “top 25″ Biotech VC funds in US by Venture Reporter in 2002/03, being the only Asian VC fund on the list.
By the way, whether or not you read Chinese, a look at BioVeda’s Chinese-language Web site offers an interesting perspective on how the fund wants to be perceived by Chinese investors and entrepreneurs as opposed to their Western counterparts.
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About the Author, David P. Hamilton
David Hamilton has been writing for VentureBeat LifeScience since April 2007. He formerly spent 14 years as a reporter for the Wall Street Journal in its San Francisco and Tokyo bureaus. Prior to that, he spent several years as a reporter at Science Magazine and as a reporter/researcher for the New Republic, both in Washington.