Financing

Since its founding, Xigen has raised CHF 46 million in venture capital financing. The company raised CHF 26 million in 2005 in a Series A financing round led by Tilocor Life Science, with VI Partners and DEFI Gestion also participating. Xigen obtained a further CHF 20 million from Tilocor Life Science in a Series B round completed in 2009.

Tilocor, Xigen’s principal investor, was co-founded by Professor Stefan Catsicas, former Vice-President of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. The Tilocor Group promotes an entrepreneurial approach adapted to the long-term needs of the life science sector. Tilocor has established a small group of innovation-driven companies, working synergistically to better understand unmet medical needs and the new technologies that can be used to address them. Currently, Tilocor companies focus on infectious diseases, inflammation and oncology with specific therapeutic agents that include human antibodies, intracellular peptides and small chemical entities.

Tilocor Life Science is based in Luxembourg and provides financial support for newly created companies, acquisitions and investments in existing promising companies. We favour a long-term entrepreneurial approach. Through majority ownership we provide support and resources to develop projects according to the specificities of the pharma industry. Our portfolio focuses on major unmet medical needs and the main efforts include infectious diseases, cancer and degenerative disorders.
www.tilocor.com

Initiative Capital SA is a venture capital fund 100% owned by BCV and managed by DEFI Gestion SA. Initiative Capital invests in the French part of Switzerland in high-tech start-ups (life science and information technology).
www.defigestion.ch