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Published on February 2, 2008

The fund is a subsidiary of the Market for Alternative Investment (MAI) and was set up recently with a starting budget of Bt1 billion to finance small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), particularly in the biotechnology industry.

The company's funding for the food businesses will be through fund managers, Sineenart Chamsri, deputy vice president for MAI's issuer marketing department, told a seminar yesterday on "Investment Support for the Biotechnology Business" organised by the Board of Investment (BoI).

She said the venture-capital fund was currently dealing with four fund managers - two who plan to invest in food businesses, one in automotive businesses and one in technology businesses.

"MAI Matching Fund is a fund of funds. The money won't go to the investors directly and we won't be involved in those companies' management," she said.

Sineenart said one objective of the venture-capital fund was to get the companies it supported to list on the MAI after operating for at least three years. This is one of the conditions for SMEs to get financing from the venture-capital fund.

Assoc Prof Somchai Chatratana, deputy director of the Technology Management Centre, said the TMC was set up by the National Science and Technology Development Agency last year to help entrepreneurs run their businesses.

Somchai said TMC had assisted 20 business people last year. The centre provides several kinds of training, such as its Industrial Technology Assistance Programme and Company Directed Technology Development Programme, he said.

TMC has a budget of Bt120 million a year for all its programmes and Bt300 million a year for loans.

Pipat Weerathaworn, research and development director of Mitr Phol Sugarcane Research Centre, said the company had received a budget of Bt100 million from TMC this year, up from Bt40 million last year.

"The company has to invest money in research and development, although we can't see profit huge from this project. I encourage other companies who want to do biotechnology business to also set up research and development units to develop their products," he said.

Nalin Viboonchart

The Nation