Australian investors back Israel’s OurCrowd pandemic fund

A group of Australian investors is bankrolling Israeli centure capital firm OurCrowd’s $US100m Pandemic Innovation Fund.

OurCrowd Australia and Asia managing director Dan Bennett

A group of large Australian family offices and high net worth individuals are bankrolling a new $US100m ($147m) Pandemic Innovation Fund being launched by the $2bn Israeli venture capital company OurCrowd to invest in companies working to mitigate the coronavirus crisis and its effects around the world.

OurCrowd, which is backed by Australian Radek Sali’s Light Warrior Group, other local family offices and the ­National Australia Bank, has bankrolled more than six Israeli companies with products that can detect and manage the symptoms caused by the deadly virus.

Its new fund will invest in about 20 medical and technology companies as well as other firms that are part of the OurCrowd portfolio that could qualify for additional investment from the fund.

“When we have had initial conversations with large families in Australia there is a significant swell of support for this. They like the idea of being connected with real solutions that make a real difference in people’s lives. People are wary a second or third wave of the coronavirus may come,’’ said OurCrowd Australia managing director Dan Bennett,

OurCrowd, a global platform that brings crowd-funding to the tech sector, has more than $2bn under management globally, around $250m of which has come from Australian investors.

“Out of our office in Australia we will probably raise close to $20m for this new fund,’’ Mr Bennett said.

OurCrowd is finalising a $12m capital raising for an Israeli company called MigVax, which is developing a COVID-19 oral vaccine for humans based on a platform developed over four years that was shown to be a highly effective oral vaccine against IBV (infectious bronchitis virus) in poultry.

“MigVax has been one of our best supported deals ever from Australia. That raise is just in the process of closing now and we represented about 25 per cent of it,’’ Mr Bennett said.

“That was our segue into the pandemic fund.”

The new fund is open to both accredited private investors (minimum $50,000) and institutional investors (minimum $1m) in Australia.

“In the past month we have seen a strong resurgence of people wanting to be involved in investments from Australia. That has been very much focused on COVID-19,’’ Mr Bennett said.

“The fact that we can also help in fast-tracking some of this technology coming to Australia is really important too.”

One of OurCrowd’s most exciting opportunities in the COVID-19 space is a company called MeMed, which has developed a test that can instantly determine if an illness is a viral infection or a bacterial infection.

MeMed’s first product, ImmunoXpert, is already being used in Europe, Switzerland and Israel.

OurCrowd company SaNOtize has developed a nitric oxide-releasing solution platform technology to treat and prevent microbial infections.

Another investee company, Sonovia — whose textiles are resistant to bacteria and fungus — has sent samples of its antimicrobial polyester-cotton fabric to be tested in China for effectiveness against coronavirus.

“As a business, we have had to baton down the hatches during COVID but we have made sure all our investee companies are in a good place. A vast majority of our portfolio have 12-18 months capital runway,’’ Mr Bennett said.