DSM Venturing, the corporate venturing unit of Royal DSM N.V., today announces that it has acquired an equity stake of 29.3% in Provexis plc, an AIM listed company that develops and licenses ingredients for the functional food, medical food and dietary supplement market. The investment makes DSM the largest shareholder of Provexis.

The investment is in line with DSM’s strategy to further expand in ingredients for functional food and dietary supplements focusing on for example cardiovascular and digestive health, two areas also addressed by Provexis. Krijn Rietveld, Senior Vice President New Business Development at DSM Nutritional Products, has been appointed non-executive director of the company.

Provexis’ lead product is Fruitflow®, a bioactive, patented extract from tomatoes that improves the blood flow which is important in maintaining a healthy heart and cardiovascular system. Fruitflow® has already attracted substantial interest from world leading food manufacturers, including Unilever. Provexis also has other products and technologies in development that are of strategic interest to DSM.

Krijn Rietveld comments: “We are proud to be shareholder of Provexis. Their ingredients pipeline has valuable health benefits and attractive market potential in line with DSM’s ambition levels. Their professional approach in attracting, developing and licensing interesting technologies is key to succeed in this competitive environment.”

Stephen Moon, Chief Executive Officer of Provexis plc, said: “We welcome DSM as a strategic shareholder in our company while we continue to strengthen the technical capability of the business in line with our strategy. We expect DSM to become a valuable shareholder of our company, with their extensive knowledge of both products and the market.”

This investment brings the total number of current company participations of DSM Venturing to twenty. Venturing forms an integral part of DSM’s open innovation approach, focused on teaming up with innovative players all over the world. The company has earmarked up to EUR 200 million for venturing investments until 2012.

DSM Venturing
DSM Venturing is an active investor in emerging companies and Venture Capital Funds in DSM’s strategic growth fields Nutrition, Pharma and Performance Materials. DSM Venturing's mission is to explore emerging markets and technologies in these strategic growth fields in order to enhance DSM's product portfolio and create value. DSM Venturing also plays an active role in the development of several new DSM business opportunities in the so-called emerging business areas Biomedical, Industrial (White) Biotechnology, Specialty Packaging and Personalized Nutrition. For more information about DSM Venturing see www.dsm venturing.com.