Biotechnology start-upNutriCognia Ltd. is setting up a $3 million joint baking venture with a Singapore company. The joint venture will control the baking process by analyzing glycoproteins used in baking.
NutriCognia CEO Dr. Ofer Markman spun the company off from ProCognia (Israel) Ltd. (TASE:PRCG) in 2004. Markman was a founder of ProCognia. The two companies have the same technology: the analysis of glycoproteins as part of the control process in biological production. The difference is in products tested: ProCognia checks quality in the manufacturing of pharmaceuticals, whereas NutriCognia does the same for food products. The company can provide food companies with information such as whether certain protein supplement has changed during production and lost its effectiveness in terms of taste or texture, or whether a probiotic bacteria survived during production.
NutriCognia has $270,000 in sales, which it hopes to boost to $500,000 this year. The company is also raising $3-4 million from private investors. The company focuses on the dairy and baking products industries, and plans to enter the beer industry soon.
NutriCognia operates in Israel, Europe, and Asia. The company has obtained a Israel-United States Binational Industrial Research and Development Foundation (BIRD-F) grant for a project for monitoring dairy manufacturing with Chromadex.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on July 19, 2007
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