Irvine-based Aivita Biomedical Inc., a biotech company specializing in stem cell applications for various uses, closed a Series B2 round of funding for $12.5 million.
The financing came from three separate investing parties; one of which is a prominent Southern California family, sources tell the Business Journal. Matthew Katz, founder of payment processor Verifi that was sold last year to Visa for an undisclosed amount, invested $8 million while Ci:z Holdings Co. contributed $3 million.
Ci:z, a Tokyo firm with a line of skincare products, last year was acquired by Johnson & Johnson for about $2.1 billion. Global brands are buying Asian skincare companies to tap into that market.
Aivita utilizes its expertise in stem cell growth for a variety of curative and regenerative medicines.
Aivita’s anti-aging product has been a hit in the Asian Pacific countries, particularly in Japan where it completely sold out on the QVC channel, according to Chief Executive Hans Keirstead.
The company is in the process of commercializing a treatment for melanoma in Japan. It is also involved in two different Phase 2 clinical trials involving a brain cancer known as glioblastoma, as well as ovarian cancer. Its other regenerative therapies are aimed at improving the immune system.
Keirstead, who has a Ph.D. in neuroscience from the University of British Columbia, has led therapy development for late-stage cancers, immune disorders, motor neuron diseases, spinal cord injury and retinal diseases. He was previously founder of companies that he sold such as California Stem Cell and Ability Biomedical, which was bought by Bristol-Myers Squibb.
Keirstead has more than 20 patents to his name. He was a professor at the University of California-Irvine where he founded and directed the Sue and Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center, raising $77 million to establish its research building.
