Evogene Completes $1.75 Million Private Placement

REHOVOT, Israel (May 31, 2005) Evogene Ltd. announced today that it has received $1.75 million in new capital from its existing as well as new investors from Israel, France and North America.

Ofer Haviv, President and CEO stated: "We are pleased to benefit from the continuing support and confidence from our current investors and are pleased to welcome the new investors to Evogene. We believe that this additional investment will help us in establishing Evogene as a leading developer of plant agro-biotechnology traits and to speed up the development of our unique plant platform for the production of therapeutic proteins."

About Evogene:
Evogene is a biotechnology company focused on developing high-value commercial products based on plant genomics. The company is merging state-of-the-art predictive computational biology and molecular biology with the most advanced breeding technologies. Evogene's current product development portfolio is focused on: improving abiotic stress tolerance and yield in key crops such as corn, soya, cotton and canola; enhancing fiber development in cotton; improving nitrogen use efficiency and plant manufacturing of therapeutic proteins. Evogene was founded in 2002 by Drs. Hagai Karchi and Rafi Meissner as a plant biotechnology spin-off of Compugen Ltd (Nasdaq: CGEN). For additional information, please visit Evogene's Website at www.evogene.com.

Contacts: Evogene, Chief Executive Officer, Ofer Haviv, +972-8-931-1904, E-mail: ofer.haviv@evogene.com
Further info: Business Wire