Although the fund has temporarily suspended any new investment activities since March, 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic, your fund managers have been working diligently to manage our existing portfolio, keeping frequent contacts with the companies our fund have invested in. As expected, the COVID-19 has affected the operations of almost all our invested companies. However, all of them are able to adapt to the new reality and keep operation as normal as possible.
We received updates from most companies our fund invested in last a couple of months. They are all doing well under the difficult circumstance. The followings are a few highlights
1) Several of them applied and received government loans under the government Paychex Protection Program (PPP) program, such as Corsha and Everix.
2) In addition to the PPP funding, Corsha and Everix have also received SBIR awards from various sources. The funding ranges from $500-$750 with options for additional awards.
3) All of our invested companies keep operation going during last a few months, although some operated with reduced capacity. For example, all Corsha employees are working from home and see little impact from COVID-19. But Everix has to operate with reduced capacity because the governor executive orders. Finally, Bounced Imaging experienced a couple of weeks delay in supplies but the delay has little impact on its delivery deadline. And it is now working on diversify its supply chain.
4) Several companies are in the process of series A funding. They includes NextDroid and Everix. When their funding complete, we should see our book values increase for our investments to these companies.
5) Our fund has applied and received the approval of Maryland Biotechnology Investment Incentive Credit (BIITC) for our investment to Gemstone Biotherapeutics, LLC.
With the business starting reopening in the country, your fund managers expect we will resume evaluating new investment opportunities and start our investment activities soon.