The SAB Foundation has disclosed its R30 million investment in LIQID Medical, a start-up that is developing a new category of sight-saving ocular implants.
The R30 million equity funding investment from the SAB Foundation is intended for technology development, regulatory accreditation, clinical trials, and IP portfolio development over a three-year period, following its most recent investment of R9.5 million from the Technology and Innovation Agency of South Africa.
Why The Investors Invested
“We are proud to be one of the first foundations in the country to use its endowment for impact investment,” says Executive Director of the SAB Foundation, Bridgit Evans. “The aim of this is to leverage traditional capital pools toward solutions that address key socio-economic challenges of inequality, unemployment and poverty. “The SAB Foundation was set up as part of the South African Breweries’ (SAB) BEE empowerment scheme and receives dividends bi-annually. We will be using funds from those investments to fund the transaction, which represents a significant shareholding in this business.”
“As a Foundation, our ultimate objective is to support social innovators to develop their businesses, which will in turn boost the local economy and create jobs. This investment is a significant opportunity to mobilise capital into investments that target measurable positive social and economic impact alongside financial returns. As a Foundation, we are so committed to improving the quality of life for people with disabilities and excited about the possibilities that this new technology holds in preventing blindness,” she concludes. “We look forward to seeing more foundations considering impact investment as part of their strategies,” Evans added.
A Look At What The Startup Does
LIQID Medical, based in Cape Town, which is growing as a significant technological cluster, won the Foundation’s annual Disability Empowerment Awards in 2019 and received R1.3 million in funding and mentorship. With the help of the grant, they carried out their first human trials, with incredibly positive outcomes.
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The patented devices have been created to take use of an anatomical mechanism that naturally occurs in order to potentially offer the most clinically effective, economical, and quality-of-life-improving treatments for glaucoma, a major contributor to blindness worldwide. The OptiShunt, iPortVR, and iFlow are the three main devices that are being worked on right now.
The devices’ creator and eye doctor, Dr. Daemon McClunan, has been working on their creation since 2015.
“Our goal is to be commercialisation ready by the end of the funding tranche,” explains McClunan. “Commercialisation, followed by launch to market, is expected three years after the investment. This is driven by the company concluding further clinical trials and securing international regulatory approvals within the target period.”
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The most efficient glaucoma treatment now available includes implanting a tube-shunt device to drain extra fluid from the eye through the conventional drainage pathway. There has never been a therapeutic method created that is more effective. Each of the three glaucoma implants LIQID Medical has created is patented, will be produced in South Africa, and is intended to address one of three distinct market shortages.
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer, who has several years of experience working in Africa’s burgeoning tech startup industry. He has closed multi-million dollar deals bordering on venture capital, private equity, intellectual property (trademark, patent or design, etc.), mergers and acquisitions, in countries such as in the Delaware, New York, UK, Singapore, British Virgin Islands, South Africa, Nigeria etc. He’s also a corporate governance and cross-border data privacy and tax expert.
As an award-winning writer and researcher, he is passionate about telling the African startup story, and is one of the continent’s pioneers in this regard. You can book a session and speak with him using the link: https://insightsbyexperts.com/view_expert/charles-rapulu-udoh