October 20th, Raanana, Israel – The round was led by Chartered Group, an SEA-based investment management fund and included Hamamatsu Photonics and angel investors.
“The world is facing a birth rate crisis. Japan just recorded its largest annual population decline as national birth rates continue to fall. Facing an ageing population, China just declared that it would seek to lift birth rate. We believe it is a prudent decision to invest in a ground-breaking effort to revolutionize male fertility.” Said Eyal Agmoni, founder and chairman of Chartered Group, which led the round of finance. The investment was made through Opus Issuance, an investment arm of the Chartered Group.
Numerous governments, organizations, as well as high-profile public figures have expressed dire concerns about the declining birth rates, a problem which poses an increasing socio-economic challenge to modern civilization. As discussed below, national governments are beginning to craft policies designed to encourage and facilitate an increase in birth rates.
“In the last 1.5 years, we have focused on a multi-center study of our first product in leading IVF centers in Israel. Now, as we approach its completion, with very favorable results, we look forward to entering a commercial pilot phase. Raising these funds positions us to launch pre-market activities and move forward towards the commercial feasibility stage. We appreciate the vote of confidence from our investors, especially considering current venture market conditions” said Alon Shalev, Co-Founder and CEO of QART Medical. QART Medical plans to use this round of financing to continue make progress on its R&D and regulatory milestones and preparing for initial product sales, anticipated in 2023.
QART Medical was founded by Professor Natan T. Shaked, from the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Tel-Aviv University, and Alon Shalev, a MedTech entrepreneur, inventor and executive, based on technology developed by Prof. Shaked at Tel-Aviv University.
“As a contributing scientist who has been involved in this program from the get-go, I am pleased to see this novel technology demonstrate feasibility in real-life scenarios. My colleagues and I believe that once the QART system begins routine clinical use in IVF labs, it will prove to be an invaluable instrument in making sperm cell selection for IVF a more informative, objective, and reproduceable procedure. Based on what we’ve seen so far, I believe that using this system can ensure greater compliance with WHO morphological criteria.” Dr. Matan Levi, PhD, head of the IVF lab at Meir Medical Center.
“Ramot, the technology transfer company of Tel Aviv University, congratulates QART Medical on closing the round, and strongly believes in the commercial ability of the technology and its potential to benefit the birth crisis that the world is facing,” said Keren Primor Cohen, Ramot’s CEO.
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 has grown 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 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 (LEDs), and video cameras used for measuring equipment. For more information, see: https://www.hamamatsu.com/
About QART Medical
QART (Quantitative Assisted Reproductive Technologies) Medical, is a clinical-stage MedTech company addressing the global infertility epidemic. The company has developed a breakthrough solution to male infertility issues that provides a quantitative characterization of sperm cells to enable informed selection ofthe most promising cells for in-vitro fertilization (IVF), aiming to create a new and improved 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 composition of individual sperm cells with 3D topographic imaging. For more information, see: www.qart-medical.com