TRDF & UGC $200m VC Fund

Technion Research & Development Foundation Ltd. (TRDF) and UGC Announce $200M Venture Capital Fund to Support the Establishment of Start-Ups Based on Technion-Created Knowledge

From right to left: Thomas Lau, Toni Wong ,CY Lau, Yossi Wald
, Beni Soffer, Jonathan Mitchell, Technion President Prof. Peretz Lavie, Chairman of the Technion Board of Directors Gideon Frank, Gary Gannot and Executive Vice President for Research Prof. Wayne Kaplan

The Technion Research & Development Foundation Ltd. (TRDF) and UG Capital Management Ltd. (UGC) announced today, at the closing plenary of the Technion Board of Governors (Board of Trustees) which met on campus, that they intend to establish a new venture capital fund of $200 million. The fund will focus on investments in science and technology companies mainly related to Technion and its alumni. The joint management team with offices in Israel and Hong Kong includes Jonathan Mitchell, CY Lau and Thomas Lau of UG Capital Management Ltd., and Eddy Shalev, Dr. Eyal Kishon and Gary Gannot of Genesis Partners.

UGC is the venture capital arm of UGI (United Gain Investment Ltd). UGI, founded in 2003, is a fund management company with extensive experience in global investments, asset management, and consulting services. UGI offers a wide range of financial services and products to private investors and organizations. Its goal is to provide professional and leading solutions in all investment categories, in order to preserve and increase investors’ assets. UGI is licensed by the Hong Kong Securities Authority (type 4 and type 9) and operates under its supervision.

Prof. Wayne D. Kaplan, Executive Vice President for Research and Director General of the Technion Research & Development Foundation Ltd., thanked the team that led the development on behalf of Technion and said, “The Technion has been increasing its commercialization activities in recent years and we have already noted many successes in this field, including more than doubling the number of startup companies set up at the Technion through the new Technion DRIVE Accelerator. However, we must not become complacent. This is why we contacted Jonathan Mitchell from UGI, who connected us to investors from Hong Kong headed by CY Lau. We realized that in addition to partners in the US and Hong Kong, we need an excellent team here in Israel, and so we were joined by the founders of Genesis, Eddy Shalev, Dr. Eyal Kishon and Gary Gannot.

“You could say we’re doing alchemy here,” said Jonathan Mitchell. “We’ve combined a number of components – the Israeli mind, institutional and private investors, and of course Technion and the local staff – and with all this we will contribute to the welfare of the world.”