Healthcare super fund HESTA directly invests in Inventia Life Science

1 June 2022 — Inventia Life Science, a startup biotech that develop, manufacture and distribute world-wide the most advanced, and award winning, RASTRUM™ 3D bioprinter, has today announced that HESTA have invested AU$4.4 million in Inventia Life Science. The bioprinter enables the scale up production of 3D cell cultures for research.

This investment is part of a successful Series B fundraise led by Blackbird Ventures with significant reinvestment from Skip Capital, which raised AU$35 million. This latest investment brings Inventia’s total funding to date to over AU$50 million. 

This marks the first direct investment made by a super fund and supports the wave of super funds investing in early-stage start-ups that represent innovative new industries which will drive economic jobs and growth.

Dr Julio Ribeiro, Founder and CEO of Inventia said:

We are delighted to partner with one of the leading institutional investors in Australia. This additional investment will provide critical support to drive the commercialisation of RASTRUM™ and expansion into the US market. Furthermore, this investment will hopefully encourage other super funds to engage with Australia’s growing and thriving start-up scene.” 

HESTA Chief Investment Officer Sonya Sawtell-Rickson said:

HESTA is excited to invest in Inventia as part of our broader focus on identifying investment opportunities in health technology and innovation. Through this partnership with Inventia, our members are invested in a company developing breakthrough bioprinting technology, enabling life-changing biomedical research and therapies. Investments like this support innovative start-ups at an early stage of their growth, which can deliver strong returns for members while having a positive impact on the world they will retire into.”