Israelis seek Roanoke investors

Thursday, November 10, 2005

The four companies offer products such as ultrasound treatment of varicose veins.

Just one day after several celebrated economists lectured a hundred or so high-profile business leaders about the dozens of criteria it takes to attract new companies to Roanoke, a small gathering of venture capitalists met to hear four Israeli manufacturers narrow the requirements.

Simply invest in us, they said.

In contrast to Tuesday's Economic Summit conference, sponsored by the Roanoke Chamber of Commerce in the grand expanse of the Hotel Roanoke & Conference Center, the Israeli companies' officials met in the relatively close quarters of a room off the lobby of Carilion Roanoke Community Hospital.

Wednesday's enclave was organized by Daniel Barchi, president and chief executive officer of Carilion Biomedical Institute, the economic development arm of Carilion Health System that has become an unofficial leader in recruiting jobs to the area. Carilion officials readily concede it's a partly self-serving effort, aimed at attracting more companies with workers who will become patients.

But the venture capital get-together is part of a refined segment of that recruiting which seeks to build the community's medical infrastructure into a national center for certain products and services. Some of those, as Carilion plans it, will be headquartered in, and make products in, space it leases out. They will be part of the growing critical mass that attracts more customers and patients underneath Carilion's spreading umbrella.

"We are a bunch of suits with white medical coats pulled over us," said Barchi, in a rare and revealing moment of self-deprecation. But he wasn't modest in describing the Israeli manufacturers making presentations. "These aren't a bunch of bright-eyed, bushy-tailed MBA graduates with a business plan in their hands. They have a range of experience and proven products that are worthy of attention from investors."

And while the guest economists speaking at the chamber meeting on Tuesday had dwelt upon such recruiting carrots as this area's mild climate, high-quality public schools and low cost of living, executives from the four Israeli companies came looking mainly, as one said, for "smart money."

That would be investment capital in the hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars, said Netta Avner, vice president of sales and marketing for Medical Vision Technologies, a company that makes machines that can scan the human eye to detect diseases such as glaucoma and the effects of diabetes.

Avner made it clear to the dozen or so venture capitalists in attendance that she had traveled all the way from Haifa, Israel, without much thought of checking out Roanoke's lifestyle.

"I could barely pronounce the word 'Roanoke' before arriving here," she said.

No matter. This conference had little time for pleasantries, tightly focused as it was on profit potential, how to protect the products being offered for investment from competition from giant U.S. firms eager to pounce on newcomers, and a laserlike look at whether the innovative technology being proffered really works.

Medical Vision, and the other companies that made brief presentations about the potential benefits of investing in them, said they're looking for partners in America and convenient places to base marketing, research and manufacturing operations.

With it would come dozens of high-paying jobs involved with producing and selling the high-tech retinal imaging devices that Medical Vision prices from just under $30,000 apiece.

The market in the United States: some 60,000 ophthalmologists, 120,000 optometrists and 50,000 hospitals and clinics. Avner's company was greeted in a no-nonsense fashion appropriate to its entrepreneurial entreaty.

The typical questions she was asked were, "How would an investor in your company get out? What's the exit strategy? What's the time frame for getting out?"

Indeed, the makeup of her audience was a far cry from the chamber's economic summit group, whose questions focused on who might be assigned to complete a study assessing and touting the business advantages of relocating or expanding in Roanoke -- and how much such a report might cost.

The companies making pitches Wednesday were eager to elaborate on how the millions of dollars they seek might be spent to explore global markets.

Besides Medical Vision, they were Venousonics, a maker of ultrasound treatment of varicose veins; Nicast, which makes so-called electrospinning-based technology aimed at cardiovascular disorders; and Biological Signal Processing Ltd., a manufacturer of cardiology diagnostic machines.

Biological Signal's CEO, Amir Beker, wasn't shy about seeking $2.5 million from investors.

"We're looking at a market for our products of $1 billion."