Kitven invests Rs 2.5 crore in start-up co Mitra Biotech

According to Kitven CEO A R Jayakumar, Mitra Biotech is the first investment in the field of biotechnology and life sciences. Speaking to Deccan Herald Jayakumar said Kitven Fund 2 has invested Rs 2.5 core into Mitra Biotech from its corpus of Rs 26.25 crore. Kitven Fund 2, which was recently launched, he said, is a Sebi registered VC fund with corpus of Rs 26.25 crore subscribed by Karnataka State Industrial Investment & Development Corporation Limited (Rs 6.25 crore), Karnataka State Financial Corporation - KSFC (Rs 7.50 crore), Small Industries Development Bank of India (Rs 7.50 crore) and Karnataka Bio-technology & Information Technology Services (Rs 5 crore).

The fund is proposed to be invested in IT, BT, nano-technology and other knowledge-based industries in Karnataka.

The MIT/Harvard spin-off, led by its CEO & co-Founder Mallikarjun Sundaram, aims to revolutionalise cancer treatment in India through pioneer research into personalised cancer treatment. Speaking to Deccan Herald, Sundaram said currently it is led by a ten-member team and will primarily focus on research in throat and neck cancer which constitues nearly 30-40 per cent of cancer-related disease prevalent in India.
 This is particularly due to high incident of betel and tobacco chewing in India.  Kitven, has funded Mitra Biotech, along with $6 billion global venture capital fund Accel Partners, which too has invested matching Rs 2.5 crore.

He said, Kitven, is also due diligence on investing Rs 2.5 crore as co-investor in a IT firm in the wireless space. A number of co-investing partners are vetting the proposal, he added.
DH News Service