Tel Aviv-based Syqe Medical has just completed the largest ever financing round by an Israeli company as it prepares to become a major global player.
The firm raised $50 million by attracting investment from the Shavit Capital fund, the PRM Holdings Fund, and German botanical company Martin Bauer Group. It already employs 100 people and it will use the funding to hire another 20 staff, gain FDA-approval for its core product – a cannabis inhaler – and establish operations in Canada, Germany, and other European countries.
Syqe Medical’s cannabis inhalers give users a metered dose designed for the exact delivery of molecules. It has now raised $85 million in total.
Chief executive Perry Davidson, who founded the firm in 2011 after previously working at cannabis company Tikun Olam, said there are not currently any inhalers in the medicinal cannabis industry that give a precise dose. Syqe Medical’s inhalers are designed to allow patients to control the quantity of CBD and THC that they receive into their bloodstream with each dosage. He hopes to fill a gap in the market, allowing Syqe Medical’s inhalers to sit alongside capsules, oils, and creams.
Tel Aviv is known in financial circles as startup city, and Israeli startups raised more than $6 billion in 2018, a new record.
The Israeli cannabis industry is on the brink of receiving a huge boost as parliament has taken giant strides towards legalizing the export of medicinal cannabis. It was previously outlawed, as politicians feared a glut of production would lead to a domestic black market, but firms have threatened to take their operations overseas and the Knesset appears poised to cave in.
Lawmakers voted 21-0 in favour of a bill that would allow Israel to rival the likes of Canada on the export market, and it now just requires cabinet approval and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s signature.
However, Syqe Medical does not need to wait for those obstacles to be cleared, as it does not produce cannabis and focuses instead on the delivery of medicinal marijuana. Its product is billed as the world’s first selective-dose pharmaceutical grade medicinal plants inhaler and the team is building up a war chest to take it global.
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