Bioneeds India raises up to $4m from Canbank

Canbank Venture Capital Fund Ltd (CVCFL), a Bangalore-based subsidiary of state-run lender Canara Bank, has invested Rs 25 crore ($3.7 million) in Bioneeds India Pvt Ltd, sources close to the development told DEALSTREETASIA.

The deal will be officially announced on December 16, 2017 during the press meet in Mumbai.

CVCFL provided the funding through equity and convertible preference shares route which will get matured in 2018.
This is the first round of external funding raised by the company and it could not be immediately ascertained how the company plan to use the money and more details.

Founded in Sept 2006, Bioneeds India, provides preclinical development and regulatory services. The company is an OECD GLP and AAALAC certified preclinical contract research organization (CRO) which supports pharmaceutical, biotechnology and agrochemical companies. It has a development facility in Bangalore.

CVCFL invests in small & medium enterprises across various sectors. It was started in 1989.

Recently, The Indian government selected Canbank Venture Capital Fund to manage its new fund Electronics Development Fund which will have an initial corpus of Rs 10,000 crore.

The EDF will provide risk capital to companies developing innovative technologies in nano-electronics, information technology and other electronics ventures. It will participate in seed and angel fund rounds and will be a minority participant.

In June this year, CVCFL invested Rs 11 crore ($1.6 million) in Surat-based security services firm Shiva Industrial Security Agency Pvt Ltd (SISA).

Prior to that, it picked a minority stake in Jaipur-based Shera Energy Pvt Ltd (SEPL) for around Rs 10 crore ($1.5 million).