Sale of Limerick firm nets €33m
The University of Limerick will receive €2m from the sale of Stokes Bio to California-based biotechnology firm Life Technologies. Enterprise Ireland will receive more than €3m.
The big winner in the deal is Cork-based venture capital firm, Kernel Capital which is set to receive just over €12m from the sale of its 37% share holding in the Limerick company.
The deal is understood to have been completed over the last few weeks. Founding president of UL, Ed Walsh, is non-executive chairman of Stokes Bio, which is an Enterprise Ireland-supported spinout of UL.
The company was established in 2005 by Prof Mark Davies and Dr Tara Dalton with an investment from the Enterprise Ireland supported Bank of Ireland Kernel Capital Equity Fund of €300,000.
A further seven separate investments by Kernel followed, totalling €2m.
Kernel Capital is one of Ireland’s largest and most active venture capital funds. It is focused on technology, life science and general industry investments and led a total of €12m in investments in Irish early stage companies in the first quarter of this year.
Life Technologies employs 9,000 people in 160 countries. Earlier this year Stokes Bio announced a major deal with Monsanto Corporation that saw the US firm licence Stokes Bio’s technology.
Under the agreement, Monsanto acquired the exclusive rights to Stokes Bio’s technology for use in agriculture.
As well as Enterprise Ireland and UL, other shareholders in Stokes Bio include ETV Capital and a number of private shareholders. The company employs 25 staff, all of whom will continue to work for the company which will now move to larger premises in Limerick city.
Stokes Bio is dedicated to the development and application of microfluidic technology, which helps to radically improve and enhance life sciences research and molecular diagnostics.
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