BAC BV completes financing led by FF&P Private Equity
Naarden, The Netherlands, February 2005 - BAC BV, a leader in the discovery and development of novel products for biopharmaceutical purification, today announced that it has completed a Euro 3.5 million private financing round led by Fleming Family & Partners Private Equity. This financing will enable the company to continue development of new solutions for lab scale separations and to advance its lead products toward launch for large scale use in pharmaceutical processes.
BAC BV has developed a range of purification products (CaptureSelect affinity ligands) based on their proprietary single domain antibody fragment technology. The business has already commercialized the technology with partners selling CaptureSelect products for the Life Science Research market. For large scale biopharmaceutical production processes, custom tailored purification solutions are provided to Pharmaceutical companies. BAC is also developing novel off-the-shelf products for biopharmaceutical purification including Monoclonal Antibodies, Fab fragments and viruses.
BAC BV’s intellectual property portfolio comprises more than 20 patents, patent applications and licences claiming the structure, discovery, manufacture and use of CaptureSelect affinity ligands. BAC BV is a spin-off from Unilever, capitalising on the large R&D investments made by the Unilever Group in this technology over the past ten years.
“This new investment is a strong endorsement of the value we have created at BAC BV by turning our platform technology into products, protected by our strong IP position”, stated Dr. Laurens Sierkstra, CEO of BAC. “The strength of BAC to deliver on our milestones has excited both customers and new investors. With the successful completion of this fundraising, we will now move rapidly towards launch of our novel large scale products for biopharmaceutical purification.”
Commenting about their investment David Donnelly of FF&P Private Equity said; “When evaluating a technology company we seek evidence that it has a disruptive technology which already has commercial traction as well as a high quality management team. BAC had all of these features. We were particularly impressed by the strong endorsement from all its customers. We are therefore delighted to have completed this deal with BAC and Unilever Ventures.”
About BAC BV
BAC BV is an Affinity Ligand company. BAC BV’s proprietary platform technology is based on the binding domain of a special class of antibodies from the immune repertoire of the family Camelidae. These single domain antibodies are produced efficiently by BAC’s proprietary host system based on the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. CaptureSelect products will enable wider use of affinity purification and provide significant benefits over existing affinity products as they are designed to offer advantages in affinity, specificity, capacity, stability, and sourcing. BAC BV was established in 1995, with an R&D laboratory facility in Vlaardingen and a state-of-the-art manufacturing plant in Naarden, the Netherlands. Currently the company employs 25 people.
About FF&P Private Equity
The Private Equity arm of Fleming Family & Partners provides development finance for unlisted growth companies that are scaleable and which have established products, customers and high quality management. Preferred sectors include “must have” product companies such as those in the food and pharmaceutical sectors, mineral and natural resource exploration and financial services. The Private Equity team has many years of experience in Portfolio Management in both listed and unlisted companies. In addition, the team have corporate finance skills and can assist with the structuring and financing of acquisitions. The Private Equity network can also assist with board appointments, advisors, industry partners and channels to market.
For further information, please visit www.ffandp.com.
About Unilever Ventures
Unilever Ventures provides venture capital funding and management skills to start-up and early stage companies. Technology spin-outs from the Unilever Group comprise a significant part of its portfolio, leveraging Unilever’s scientific expertise into different industries. Unilever Ventures also focuses on consumer-facing businesses in Europe where it can draw upon the Unilever Group’s expertise in Food and Home & Personal Care products and services. For further information, please visit www.unileverventures.com.
For further information contact:
Dr. Laurens Sierkstra, CEO BAC BV
BAC BV
Huizerstraatweg 28
1411 GP Naarden
The Netherlands
+31 35 6992794
info@bac.nl
