Dublin-based biotechnology company Nuritas has closed a $45 million (€39 million) Series B funding round as it eyes global expansion.
The latest funding brings to $75 million the total amount raised by the company, which uses data mining of molecules in food and food byproducts to identify supplements and new drugs.
The Series B round was led by Chicago-based Cleveland Avenue, with Grosvenor's Wheatsheaf Group, the European Circular Bioeconomy Fund (ECBF), Singapore-based Vertex Holdings, Nutresa Ventures/Veronorte, Cultivian Sandbox Ventures and VisVires New Protein also participating. Other early backers of Nuritas include U2's Bono and The Edge, Salesforce chief executive Marc Benioff and entrepreneur Ali Partovi.
Benefits
The funding will support Nuritas’s global expansion and its work on peptides, which are smaller versions of proteins with added highly specific benefits. Typically used for preventative health and therapeutic purposes, peptides can be incorporated into foods and personal-care products to deal with conditions such as diabetes and can be developed into drugs to treat diseases.
Nuritas uses a proprietary AI and genomics platform – Npi – to analyse billions of hidden peptides in plants and natural food sources to predict and identify how they impact specific health areas.
"It has been a landmark year, resulting in the expansion of our peptide portfolio, growing the commercial team and developing key global partnerships," said Dr Nora Khaldi, founder and CEO of Nuritas. "Our new investors bring a wealth of invaluable expertise, and this latest round will help [US]to build our US headquarters, continue to expand our team, scale our platform to discover more life-changing ingredients and accelerate our route to market."
Board of directors
Randall Lewis, managing director of Cleveland Avenue, and Stephan Dolezalek, executive director of Grosvenor's Wheatsheaf Group, will join Nuritas's board of directors.
Former Pepsico chief executive Indra Nooyi, Bayer's Joerg Ohle and professor of food science and technology Bruce German of the University of California have joined Nuritas's advisory board.
“Nuritas is led by a talented team and its AI-powered peptide discovery platform Npi is a novel and proprietary platform technology that offers unprecedented value to the future of our health and our planet,” said Mr Lewis.
“Cleveland Avenue is pleased to be a part of the company’s ongoing growth and we anticipate Nuritas will become a global ingredient powerhouse and a partner of choice for companies around the world.”
