19 June 2009

The young innovative company Nutraceutics D&S welcomes Seventure Partners in its capital to accelerate the commercial deployment of its salt substitute, and the development of its other products, all targeted at reducing cardiovascular diseases risk f

Press Release
Paris,18th June 2009

This company joined the 4 other companies targeting the market of
nutritional health in the investment portfolio of Seventure, confirming its
commitment in this area and its ability to finance companies from the
seed stage
Created in 2005 and based in Vichy (France), Nutraceutics D&S is a company dedicated
to the development, production and marketing of innovative ingredients for healthy
nutrition. The company relies on the skills and personality of its founder and CEO, William
Caly, former R&D Director at Nestle. An engineer by training, he has accumulated both in
Europe and in the USA, over 25 years of extensive experience in the food industry and a
specialization in technical issues related to powdered ingredients.
After some years of service on behalf of third parties, Nutraceutics D&S has developed its
own portfolio of healthy nutrition products among which it has just launched the first: an
innovative substitute for salt that meets both the expectations from the food industry and
from the public health agencies in the context of the reduction of cardiovascular disease
risk factors.
It has long been known that excessive salt in the diet causes an increase in blood
pressure, and each year new studies reinforce this belief. It is also admitted that
hypertension is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease (myocardial infarction,
stroke, kidney failure ...). Despite this, the average salt consumption in developed
countries is about 10 g/d, while our physiological needs are around 2 g/d. The excessive
ingested salt comes for 10% from the salt added by the consumer during meals, for 10%
from the salt present in raw foods (meat, fish, fruits and vegetables), and for 70% from
the salt added by the food industry in all "processed" products, which often comprise the
largest part of our meals.
Jerome Samson, Associate at the Department of Life Sciences at Seventure explains:
"Once this is acknowledged by all stakeholders (public health authorities, manufacturers,
distributors and consumers), the salt reduction in our diet becomes a major public health
topic, and becomes very important economically."
However, reducing salt in processed products has a strong impact on their technical
(conservation, appearance, technical feasibility...) and economical characteristics, as well
as on their taste.
"Many suppliers of ingredients have been offering salt substitutes for several years, but
none had previously given full satisfaction. K-Salt®, the salt substitute proposed by
Nutraceutics D&S, through its highly innovative formula, provides a very elegant solution
to this problem" adds William Caly, CEO of Nutraceutics D&S.
Indeed, this product can be integrated without any significant adaptation to any process
(bread baking, prepared meals, soups, sausages...), allowing manufacturers to achieve
an immediate reduction of 25% of the sodium content without compromising organoleptic
performances. Reaching this threshold enables the claim "reduced salt content" to be put
on the labelling, and complies with the objectives of public health authorities, which are
for the time being only recommendations, but which will very soon (as it is already the
case in the United Kingdom) become mandatory targets in most countries.
Nutraceutics D&S' K-Salt® is primarily targeted to the B-2-B market of food industry
ingredients, and holds a second innovation: because of its composition, it brings to our
diet a significant potassium supplement in a highly bioavailable form and without any bad
after-taste. Indeed, unlike sodium, present in excess in our food and with undesirable
effects on blood pressure, bioavailable potassium is hardly present within our plates,
though it is very beneficial to our cardiovascular system, as confirmed by many experts in
nutrition.
All these characteristics and Nutraceutics D&S management skills have decided
Seventure Partners team to join this adventure, as confirmed by Isabelle de Cremoux,
General Partner and Director of Life Sciences Department at Seventure: "Our investment
in Nutraceutics D&S will enable the international commercialisation of their first product KSalt
®. This commitment from Seventure corresponds with the objectives we have set for
ourselves when we decided 3 years ago to invest in healthy nutrition: bring to the
marketplace innovative products corresponding to the most important public health
challenges. And of course the "less salt / better salt" is a very important challenge,
similarly to the "less fat / better fat" which we recently contributed to by investing in
Polaris".
Seventure Life Sciences Department is dedicated to supporting European companies
providing highly innovative new products to the market in several sectors:
pharmaceuticals and biotechnology (as Santaris, TxCell, Noxxon or OPi), instrumentation
and medical implants (as Tekka or Mauna Kea), industrial biotech (such as Metabolic
Explorer). Isabelle de Cremoux explains: "We decided 3 years ago to deploy significant
resources to expand our scope of investment to the area of Healthy Nutrition because we
thought the market would bring significant opportunities for growth and a strong attraction
from both pharmaceutical companies in search of diversification and food industry
leaders to support their search for innovation to improve their product lines. Seventure
first investment in this area was Fluxome Sciences in Denmark in 2005 and Biophytis and
ABA in France in 2008, and Polaris in 2009. Nutraceutics D&S is the 5th Seventure
investment in this area and complements perfectly the portfolio.
About Nutraceutics D & S
Nutraceutics D & S is a young company based in Vichy (France) and dedicated to the development,
production and marketing of innovative ingredients for healthy nutrition. Its first product, K-Salt® is
an innovative substitute for salt, for industrial and artisanal food processors, and allows them,
without altering their production processes, to obtain products with preserved organoleptic
characteristics, eligible to the claim "Reduced salt content" and conform to the expectations of both
consumers and public health authorities. The first markets targeted are industrial and artisanal
bread bakery, sausages and prepared dishes and soups. More information on www.nutraceuticsds.
com or William Caly, CEO, william.caly@nutraceutics-ds.com, +33 4 7058 5460.
About Seventure
Being one of the leading venture capital firms in Europe, Seventure manages €500m and invests
since 1997 in innovative businesses with high growth potential in Information & Communication
Technologies and in Life Sciences. The Life Sciences team invests all over Europe. Its 4 preferred
sectors are Biotech & Pharmaceuticals, Medtech, Industrial Biotech & Cleantech, and Lifestyle
Healthcare & nutrition. A typical investment ranges from €500k to €10 m per round, up to €20 m per
company, from early to later stage. Seventure is a subsidiary of Natixis Private Equity, the asset
management company of Natixis, with over €4.2 bn in private equity investments. www.seventure.fr