Raisio Enters Joint Venture in Finland to Commercialize Benemilk

17 Apr 2013 --- Raisio and Intellectual Ventures’ Invention Development Fund have agreed on the establishment of a jointly owned company called Benemilk Oy.

The aim of the joint venture is to develop and strengthen the intellectual property portfolio related to the Benemilk invention, a cattle feed supplement that improves milk production, and to commercialise the invention for global markets. As a result of the arrangement, the Benemilk invention will be transferred to the joint venture, which will grant Raisio a royalty-free, exclusive license to the invention and its future applications in Finland.

Raisio’s group company Nordic Feed Innovation Oy will own 75% and Intellectual Ventures (IV) 25% of the joint venture company. Raisio will own 76% of Nordic Feed Innovation Oy, while 24% of the company will be independently owned by Finnish Food Chain Development Oy. The aforementioned entities are new companies being incorporated for this arrangement.

IV is the world’s leading invention capital company, specialising in the creation, management and monetization of inventions and intellectual property rights. The company manages more than USD 5 billion in investment capital and has generated more than USD 2 billion in licensing revenue. IV manages more than 40,000 patents and patent applications in its portfolio. Headquartered in Seattle, USA, IV employs more than 800 people globally and works with more than 4,000 outside inventors around the world. The founders of the company include Nathan Myhrvold and Edward Jung, both former senior executives at Microsoft.

IV founder and chief technology officer, Edward Jung, said of the joint venture: “Intellectual Ventures has applied our global invention ecosystem of thousands of inventors and hundreds of organizations to several complex global problems. This includes several areas related to the agriculture supply chain encompassing food safety, quality, efficiency, environmental impact, and innovation. The world continues to face a series of challenges related to large-scale food production - and we have seen this in places as diverse as Kenya and China. Benemilk and this joint venture will allow us to tackle some of these global problems head on. The Benemilk invention is one of the most promising approaches we have seen, and we are encouraged by the huge potential it and related ideas have to make a worldwide impact. I am very pleased to have the opportunity to establish a joint venture in Finland and to begin working closely with Raisio, a leading innovator in the food and agriculture sector.”

Raisio’s CEO Matti Rihko says: “Cooperating with the world’s largest specialty invention company shows the strength and potential of the innovations coming from Raisio even though our Benemilk patent applications are still pending. Our work with Intellectual Ventures and its international invention ecosystem brings the best possible expertise and resources to bear upon the improvement, patenting, enforcement and global commercialisation of our inventions. I am especially pleased that the joint venture with Intellectual Ventures will be established in Finland.”