KV Fund doubles down with a €500,000 commitment between two of its ventures
12:20 - 29 May 2024
![KV Embio Promed Bioscience](/images/vkwWDoQIGYk9nkNOLzVX8-gUBPc=/784555/width-750/2024/05/31/KV_Embio_Promed_Bioscience.jpg)
KV Fund has announced it will be granting strategic follow-on capital of €500,000 to two of its own ventures - EMBIO Diagnostics and Promed Bioscience – thus expanding its US footprint.
In a press release, KV Fund said that EMBIO is adding new international and domestic clients and growing its revenue by about 80% YoY. “This capital infusion will add to EMBIO's current growth financing round aimed at expanding its sales activity across many new international markets including US and Canada,” it said.
Promed, on the other hand, is actively expanding its international client base and scaling up its production capabilities for collagen formulations and bioinks targeting the growing 3D bioprinting and regenerative medicine market.
“It is exciting to see both portfolio companies having reached critical milestones, and we are convinced that this strategic follow-on capital will help propel them to their international growth phase,” said Andreas Panayi, KV Fund Investment Advisory Committee lead.
KV Fund’s strategy has remained grounded on using the team's US experience to spot, invest and then support great ideas and teams to compete in larger international markets.
“The search for new Cypriot startups to join the KV Fund portfolio is ongoing,” added Yiannos Georgiades, KV Fund Investment Advisory Committee member.
Since its launch, the KV Fund team has reviewed hundreds of pitch decks and met with a healthy number of new founders, with their “pitch-to-invest” ratio currently standing at 2.9%. At the same time, standing their corner and supporting their portfolio companies financially is a key part of their value-add recipe.
“When we feel that we have found gems, we will do our best to double down on them at key inflection points in their growth path. As a matter of fact, since the fund's inception approximately 20% of our capital has already been deployed in follow-on investments,” stated Chris Droussiotis, KV Fund Investment Advisory Committee member.
While properly timed follow-on investments are very important to value creation, the KV Fund team just announced equally important strategic moves which will support all US-bound companies' expansion and pave the Fund's way towards exits: The KV Fund has joined ARC III and JumpstartNJ, two East Coast member-led early-stage tech investment vehicles and is partnering with Reitler Law & Reitler’s Startup Advisory group. Reitler Law, a prominent NYC-headquartered law firm, is ranked globally as a top-10 VC firm by Pitchbook, with an extensive VC, PE & M&A network, and impressive deal track-record.
“Being an active, contributing member of the CY startup ecosystem is only one part of our KV Fund differentiated recipe. Deepening and expanding our existing 40+ year-strong USA network is the other equally as important part,” said Panayi.
Investing and actively participating in US early-stage investment groups such as ARC III and StartupNJ and partnering with important ecosystem players such as the Reitler law firm, gives the KV Fund more visibility, a finger on the US innovation pulse, co-investment opportunities and access to private and institutional investors for future direct investments into KV Fund portfolio companies.