September 24, 2002
Source: The Economic Times
Avesthagen to target global functional food market

ANIL URS
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
BANGALORE: Avesthagen, a Bangalore-based agribiotech and bioinformatics company, has chalked out a plan to target the global functional food market in the form of ‘food for medicine’ and ‘seed for food’.

Talking to The Economic Times, Dr Villoo Morawala Patell, founder & CEO, Avesthagen, said that the company is addressing the functional food market purely derived from Indian medicinal plant and traditional foods.

Under ‘food for medicine’, the major thrust is to derive novel molecules and therapeutics from standardised plant extracts and prepare new cocktails for specific diseases like diabetics and skincare. For the ‘seed for food’ category, the company is to come out with draught-tolerant plants and derive protein of antioxidants.

"Through these new initiatives, the company plans to achieve $2.6 million of revenues in the first year and in five years, $5.2 million through sale of skincare and diabetes products," she said. The global functional food market is valued at $52 billion, of which 26% is from Asia, 34% from western Europe, 38% from North America and 2% from the rest of the world.

The company has recently entered into an alliance with Wipro to exploit the convergence between IT and biotechnology, and tied up with pharma major AstraZeneca for a drug discovery programme in tuberculosis (TB).

The company has also entered into a strategic tie-up with International Crop Research Institute for Semi Arid Tropics (Icrisat) to provide supportive services in genomics.

To scale up global operations, the company is looking at additional funding and has appointed Kotak Mahindra and KPMG as global advisors for raising about $10 million. "The quantum of funds will be determined after assessing the market," revealed Dr Villoo Patell.

So far, Tata Industries has picked up a 5% stake in Avestagen for an undisclosed sum and has also received $1.5 million as first round of venture funding from ICICI Venture Funds. Hyderabad-based Global Trust Bank has also come in as strategic equity investor by contributing Rs 2 crore.