Shantani develops advanced technology applications for use by drug discovery organisations. Proprietary technology allows savings of 50-70 per cent in cost and time over existing strategies

July 17, 2012 /India PRwire/ -- With it's focus on supporting innovation driven start-ups in technology and life sciences with early stage investment, the India Innovation Fund (IIF) (www.indiainnovationfund.in) along with Blume Ventures as co-investor, has made an investment in Shantani Proteome Analytics Pvt. Ltd.(http://www.shantani.com). Incubated at the National Chemical Laboratories' Venture Center at Pune, Shantani develops advanced technology applications for use by drug discovery organisations for drug target discovery. Shantani also develops in-house drug discovery programs in defined therapeutic areas. Shantani has been founded by a management team with global scientific and business expertise.

Shantani's proprietary chemical proteomics technology platform is used to identify and validate a few but rightful targets (cellular binding partners) of drugs and drug like bioactive molecules in a very short period of time allowing savings of 50-70 per cent in cost and time over existing strategies. It is also valuable for drug repositioning purposes and for identifying off-target interactions of a drug to understand its toxicity profile.

Rajesh Rai, Chief Executive Office, India Innovation Fund, said, "We are excited to partner with Dr.Saxena and the Shantani team. Shantani has developed a unique technology platform with significant benefits for drug design and development. We look forward to supporting the company through the IIF network."

Dr.Chaitanya Saxena, Chief Executive Officer and Board of Director, Shantani Proteome Analytics Pvt. Ltd. said, "We have an innovative and exciting technology in the niche area of drug (target) discovery. However to grow our business we were not only looking for capital but the right partners with the understanding of technology driven businesses and a strong network in life sciences to help take our start-up to next stage. IIF led funding came with all those ingredients"

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

Notes to Editor

India Innovation Fund (IIF) www.indiainnovationfund.in: A first of its kind initiative by NASSCOM and the IKP Knowledge Park, created with the intent of providing early stage financing to promote innovation led companies in Information & Communication Technology, and Life Sciences, especially those with a core focus on creating businesses around Intellectual Property. Strategic investors in the fund are Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Bharti Airtel, Department of Science and Technology (Government of India), Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI. Apart from providing start-up risk capital, IIF supports the entrepreneurs with potential collaborative mechanisms and access to markets by leveraging its linkages.

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