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  • 2019.12.3
  • Investment

Investment in AlgalBio, Inc.

Innovation Kyoto 2016 Investment Limited Partnership ("KYOTO-iCAP No.1 Fund"), with Kyoto University Innovation Capital Corporation ("Kyoto iCAP") (Head office: Sakyo-ku, Kyoto; Representative Director: Koji Murota) as unlimited liability partner, has made an investment in Algar Bio Inc. (Head office: Kashiwa City, Chiba Prefecture; Representative Director: Takeshi Takeshita), a venture company that utilizes research results from Kyoto University.

Outline of this investment
AlgarBio is a venture company established based on the results of advanced breeding research on algae conducted by Professor Emeritus Shigeyuki Kono and his colleagues at the University of Tokyo. The company possesses proprietary technologies for utilizing microalgae to produce natural product-derived food, cosmetics, raw materials for pharmaceuticals, biofuels, and other products that meet customer needs.

Through its research to date, AlgalBio has built a library of approximately 3,000 strains of microalgae, and has succeeded in efficiently producing carotenoids and rare fatty acids, which are useful as functional materials, from algae. Professor Hideaki Miyashita of Kyoto University's Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies has also contributed to these studies, and Professor Miyashita serves as a technical advisor to AlgarBio.

Kyoto iCAP has decided to underwrite 50 million yen of the total capital increase of 400 million yen through a third-party allocation of new shares, in recognition of AlgarBio's technological capability to mass produce useful materials from carbon dioxide and sunlight without relying on fossil fuels. The University of Tokyo Edge Capital, Japan Science and Technology Agency, Abies Ventures, and Chiba Bank Capital also participated in this capital increase.

Outline of AlgalBio, Inc.

Establishment March 2018
Business Manufacture and sales of functional materials using algae
Head Office Location Kashiwa City, Chiba Prefecture
President & CEO Takeshi Takeshita

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