Tel Aviv University’s technology transfer unit Ramot has announced the first closing of its $17m Technology Innovation Momentum Fund.

The Momentum Fund will be used to invest a number of different fields with a view to commercialise new technologies, including healthcare, drug discovery, and physical sciences, and will become operational from the start of 2014.

The lead investor of the fund with $5m invested is India-based Tata Industries, which was announced as an investor in the then $20m fund back in May. Also joining Tata is flash memory storage developer SanDisk and angel investors from South Africa, the US, and India.

Shlomo Nimrodi, chief executive of the Momentum Fund, said: “The Momentum Fund represents an innovative approach for early stage innovations utilizing a for-profit investment mechanism with the support of strategic partners. The fund was able to attract household industry experts to supervise the investment decisions and the development process. The fund expects to invest in 20-40 projects an amount of $250K – $1,000K per project on a milestone basis in a diversified range of technologies, all together mitigating the risk of early stage investment.”