Landshut/Munich — Bayern Kapi­tal, one of the most expe­ri­en­ced and active inves­tors in the high-tech finan­cing land­scape, is inves­t­ing in mbio­mics GmbH. The Munich-based company is a pioneer in the field of micro­biome biotech­no­logy and is deve­lo­ping the first gene­ra­tion of effec­tive micro­­biome-based live thera­peu­tics (LBT). In addi­tion to Bayern Kapi­tal, MIG Capi­tal as lead inves­tor as well as High-Tech Grün­der­fonds and other private inves­tors parti­ci­pa­ted in the first closing of the Series A round with a total volume of EUR 13 million. The closing of the funding round puts mbio­mics at the fore­front of the emer­ging field of synthe­tic micro­bial consor­tia, which have the poten­tial to revo­lu­tio­nize the treat­ment of a wide range of dise­a­ses, from cancer to inflamm­a­tory bowel disease.

Foun­ded in Munich in 2020, mbio­mics GmbH focu­ses on the deve­lo­p­ment of the first gene­ra­tion of effec­tive bacte­rial living thera­peu­tics (LBT). The company is using its proprie­tary, custom profil­ing plat­form and compu­ta­tio­nal tech­no­lo­gies to gene­rate high-reso­lu­­tion precis­ion data to modu­late the micro­biota, over­co­ming current bott­len­ecks in LBT deve­lo­p­ment. The tech­no­logy enables a better under­stan­ding of the inter­ac­tions between the gut micro­biome and the host, allo­wing mbio­mics to deve­lop more effec­tive micro­bial consor­tia that can be deli­vered to pati­ents as precis­ion thera­pies. In addi­tion, mbio­mics’ core tech­no­logy impro­ves pati­ent selec­tion and moni­to­ring for clini­cal trials, crea­ting a compe­ti­tive advantage.

“The micro­biome offers a rich source of new thera­peu­tic oppor­tu­ni­ties that have not yet been fully explo­red. Our goal is to harness the power of the micro­biome to treat dise­a­ses that are diffi­cult to treat with conven­tio­nal approa­ches,” explains Dr. Markus Rinecker, co-foun­­der and CMO of mbio­mics. “Our outstan­ding R&D team has deli­vered a tech­no­lo­gi­cal proof-of-concept for our analy­sis plat­form in record time. With this tech­no­logy, mbio­mics is uniquely posi­tio­ned to under­stand the modu­la­tion of the micro­biome and deve­lop effec­tive thera­pies,” added Johan­nes B. Woehr­stein, Ph.D., co-foun­­der and CTO.

“We are very plea­sed to have the support of such a pres­ti­gious group of inves­tors who share our vision of harnes­sing the power of the gut micro­biome to deve­lop targe­ted thera­pies,” said Laura Figulla, Ph.D., co-foun­­der and CEO of mbio­mics. “This funding will allow us to build our plat­form, acce­le­rate the selec­tion of our first lead product candi­da­tes, and inten­sify rese­arch acti­vi­ties with an eye toward clini­cal validation.”

“The influence of the micro­biome on dise­a­ses is curr­ently being rese­ar­ched in many ways,” said Monika Steger (photo © Bayern Kapi­tal), mana­ging direc­tor of Bayern Kapi­tal. “mbio­mics shows great poten­tial in the deve­lo­p­ment of micro­­biome-based thera­peu­tics for support­ive inter­ven­tion in various dise­a­ses and can thus take rese­arch a decisive step forward. We look forward to pursuing this path toge­ther with the company and an expe­ri­en­ced and finan­ci­ally strong inves­tor consortium.”

Dr. Matthias Kromayer, Mana­ging Part­ner of MIG Capi­talcommen­ted: “We are plea­sed to announce our invest­ment in mbio­mics and to support the company on its jour­ney to deve­lop a powerful, inno­va­tive thera­peu­tics plat­form. The company’s approach of combi­ning new tech­no­lo­gies with cutting-edge micro­biome rese­arch is ground­brea­king and has the poten­tial to signi­fi­cantly improve treat­ment outco­mes for pati­ents. We look forward to support­ing mbio­mics’ ongo­ing rese­arch towards clini­cal development.”

“In the deve­lo­p­ment of “Live Bacte­rial Products”, micro­biome profil­ing remains one of the major chal­lenges. Mbio­mics has deve­lo­ped a novel high-perfor­­mance profil­ing plat­form that addres­ses key bott­len­ecks in the deve­lo­p­ment of micro­­biome-based thera­peu­tic approa­ches using novel bacte­rial consor­tia. We are plea­sed to invest in an excel­lent team and an inno­va­tive tech­no­logy toge­ther with strong co-inves­­tors,” adds Dr. Jan Engels, Invest­ment Mana­ger at High-Tech Grün­der­fonds.

About Bayern Kapital
Bayern Kapi­tal GmbH, based in Lands­hut, is the venture/growth capi­tal company of the Free State of Bava­ria. It accom­pa­nies inno­va­tive high-tech compa­nies in the Free State through various growth phases, from seed to later stage, with equity capi­tal in the amount of 0.25 to 25 million euros. Bayern Kapi­tal often fills gaps in the VC sector in proven consor­tium constel­la­ti­ons with private inves­tors (busi­ness angels, family offices and corpo­rate ventures).

Bayern Kapi­tal mana­ges specia­li­zed invest­ment funds with a volume of around 700 million euros. Since its foun­da­tion in 1995 on the initia­tive of the state govern­ment, the wholly owned subsi­diary of LfA Förder­bank Bayern has so far inves­ted around 400 million euros of its own equity capi­tal in around 300 start-ups and scale-ups in sectors such as life scien­ces, soft­ware & IT, mate­ri­als & new mate­ri­als, nano­tech­no­logy and envi­ron­men­tal tech­no­logy. As a result, more than 8,000 jobs have been perma­nently crea­ted in Bava­ria in sustainable compa­nies. The active port­fo­lio curr­ently compri­ses over 80 companies.

Examp­les of nume­rous ground­brea­king success stories that Bayern Kapi­tal has been invol­ved in at an early stage include EOS (today the world’s leading tech­no­logy provi­der in indus­trial 3D prin­ting of metals and plas­tics), Proglove, Fazua, SimS­cale, Scom­pler, egym, Parcel­lab, Cobrai­ner, Quan­tum Systems, Casavi, Riskme­thods, Tubu­lis, Cata­lym, Immu­nic, Sirion, tado and many more.
www.bayernkapital.de

About mbio­mics
Foun­ded in 2020 and head­quar­te­red in Munich, Germany, mbio­mics GmbH is a priva­tely held biotech company focu­sed on the deve­lo­p­ment of first gene­ra­tion effec­tive live bacte­rial thera­peu­tics (LBT). The company is lever­aging its custom micro­biome diagno­stics plat­form to over­come current bott­len­ecks in LBT deve­lo­p­ment — gene­ra­ting accu­rate profil­ing data, selec­ting better consor­tia, and impro­ving pati­ent stra­ti­fi­ca­tion and moni­to­ring in clini­cal trials.
www.mbiomics.com