Hamamatsu Photonics K.K., has joined Chartered Investment Managers, a SEA-based investment management fund, the Tel Aviv University (T.A.U), Technology Innovation Momentum Fund, managed by Ramot, TAU’s Business Engagement Center and a group of angel investors, in the Seed financing round, having an initial closing on March 2019. Hamamatsu is an industry leader in developing and manufacturing photonics components and assemblies.
QART Medical was founded by Prof Natan T. Shaked from the Department of Biomedical Engineering in Tel-Aviv University and Alon Shalev, a MedTech entrepreneur, inventor and executive. The Company was founded around the assets of an eight-years R&D program led by Prof Shaked within the T.A.U.
“Having a highly reputable industry leader like Hamamatsu as a stake-holder in QART, should allow us intimate access to cutting-edge photonics technology, components and know-how” said Alon Shalev, Co-Founder and CEO of QART Medical.
“Having exposure to new, innovative new ways, in which photonics can be used to promote healthcare and wellbeing, has become one of the long-term corporate objectives, at Hamamatsu Photonics. We are happy to be able to join forces with a breadth of MedTech harnessing the know-how of photonics, to the realization of new technologies and products” said Dr Ken Kaufmann, PhD, who has led the investment process on behalf of Hamamatsu.
About Hamamatsu Photonics K.K.
HAMAMATSU PHOTONICS K.K. is an industry leader in manufacturing electron tubes, semiconductors, and image processors. The Company’s products include photosensitive electronic tubes, optical/image sensors, X-ray related products, laser related products, photodiodes, light-emitting diodes (LED) and video camera used for measuring equipment.
About QART Medical
QART (Quantitative Assisted Reproductive Technologies) Medical, a clinical-stage MedTech company, addressing the global infertility epidemic. The Company develops a breakthrough solution that utilizes a highly informative characterization and selection of sperm cells for in-vitro fertilization (IVF), aiming to create a new and better gold standard in the ART market. The QART system aims to improve current success rates of Intra-Cytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI) by:
Quantitatively characterizing the morphology and contents of individual sperm cells with 3D topographic imaging
Providing quantitative DNA integrity information, on a cell-by-cell basis
Automatically sorting a semen sample according to objective consensus criteria
QART intends to commercially launch its system – a workstation and disposable cartridges – in year 2020, and commence marketing to fertility clinics, aiming to significantly improve pregnancy rates in ICSI procedures (for more information, see: www.qart-medical.com)
About Chartered Group
Chartered Opus is a production platform for investment products combining structural and technological innovations to a new methodology in Structured Products. Chartered Opus is the preferred investment vehicle for the Chartered Group’s High-Tech division. In the past two years Chartered Group grew its high-tech portfolio to about 20 companies – all with disruptive technologies, including being the anchor investor for TAU Venture at the Tel Aviv University. For more information, visit http://www.charteredgroup.com/
About Ramot and the Momentum fund
Ramot is the Business Engagement Center at Tel Aviv University, Israel’s largest research and teaching university. Rooted in both academic and corporate arenas, Ramot is uniquely positioned to cultivate the special relationships between these two compelling worlds, creating win-win connections that support fertile, ground breaking research while providing companies with discoveries that give them a crucial competitive edge. The Momentum Fund, is the most recent of Ramot’s funds to become operational. This fund offers around one-million-dollar funding for transnational research technologies at Tel Aviv University in a wide range of fields, including pharmaceuticals, healthcare, high-tech and the physical sciences.