Greifs­wald — Great success for Nebula Bioci­des GmbH, three inves­tors decide to invest in the Greifs­­wald-based start-up. This brings the start-up a signi­fi­cant step closer to its goal of obtai­ning appr­oval for and laun­ching the highly effec­tive disin­fec­tant Sporo­san® on the market.

With a total invest­ment of 1.6 million euros, the start-up Nebula Bioci­des, foun­ded in 2019, can now take off: the appr­oval of the novel disin­fec­tion process Sporo­san® is supported by High-Tech Grün­der­fonds (HTGF), Mittel­stän­di­sche Betei­li­gungs­ge­sell­schaft Meck­­len­­burg-Vorpom­­mern mbH (MBMV) and a stra­te­gic inves­tor from the clea­ning and disin­fec­tion equip­ment sector as part of a seed financing.

“We are very plea­sed to have a strong busi­ness part­ner and, with HTGF and MBMV, two expe­ri­en­ced and network-strong finan­cial inves­tors on board,” said Dr. Jörn Winter, CEO of Nebula Biocides

Toge­ther with his colle­ague Dr. Ansgar Schmidt-Bleker, also foun­der and mana­ging direc­tor of Nebula Bioci­des GmbH, he had disco­vered the novel disin­fec­tion process in 2016. As part of their work at the Leib­niz Insti­tute for Plasma Rese­arch and Tech­no­logy e.V. (INP), the physi­cists iden­ti­fied the subs­tance peroxi­ni­trite acid as an effec­tive agent and deve­lo­ped the Sporo­san® process on this basis. In this process, two start­ing compon­ents react with each other for a short time and have a highly disin­fec­ting effect during this period.

Sporo­san® not only kills bacte­ria and viru­ses; even stub­born bacte­rial spores have no chance of survi­val thanks to the new process,” says Schmidt-Bleker, empha­si­zing the broad effi­cacy of the disin­fec­tant. In the future, this will also prevent infec­tions with the dange­rous hospi­tal germ Clos­tri­dio­ides diffi­cile, which leads to severe diar­rhea and is often fatal, espe­ci­ally in previously ill pati­ents. The Greifs­wald rese­ar­chers have thus achie­ved a breakth­rough — to date there is no disin­fec­tant in the world with a compa­ra­bly strong and rapid effect that is at the same time envi­ron­men­tally friendly and gentle in use.

The signi­fi­cance and poten­tial of the active ingre­di­ent were also reco­gni­zed by the three inves­tors, whose parti­ci­pa­tion will now make it possi­ble to finance the studies requi­red for approval.

“We are very proud to welcome Nebula Bioci­des to our port­fo­lio with their distinctly disrup­tive chemis­try inno­va­tion. The under­ly­ing tech­no­logy promi­ses to create nume­rous sustainable appli­ca­tion oppor­tu­ni­ties,” Dr. Niko­laus Raupp, Invest­ment Mana­ger at High-Tech Gründerfonds

With the help of the inves­tors, the company, which now consists of a team of five, can pursue two paths at once: First, it is aiming for appr­oval as a biocide, so that Sporo­san will be available to ever­yone as a hand and surface disin­fec­tant from 2028. In paral­lel, the Nebula team is working inten­si­vely on solu­ti­ons for the spori­ci­dal repro­ces­sing of medi­cal devices with the aim of marke­ting the disin­fec­tant itself as a medi­cal device. With the stra­te­gic inves­tor, an indus­trial part­ner has alre­ady been found who would like to use Sporo­san® for its products; market launch is expec­ted in 2024. Howe­ver, the start-up is alre­ady recei­ving inqui­ries from other inte­res­ted compa­nies from a wide range of indus­tries every week, which only further unders­cores the scope of Greifswald’s inno­va­tion in the health­care, phar­maceu­ti­cal and food industries.

About Nebula Bioci­des GmbH
Nebula Bioci­des GmbH was foun­ded in 2019 as a spin-off from the Leib­niz Insti­tute for Plasma Science and Tech­no­logy e.V. (INP) by the scien­tists Dr. Jörn Winter, Dr. Ansgar Schmidt-Bleker and the direc­tor of INP Prof. Dr. Klaus-Dieter Welt­mann in Greifs­wald. With the aim of provi­ding compre­hen­sive protec­tion against infec­tious agents, the company deve­lops appli­­­ca­­tion-orien­­ted disin­fec­tion solu­ti­ons that relia­bly kill not only bacte­ria and viru­ses but also stub­born bacte­rial spores. www.nebula-biocides.de

About Mittel­stän­di­sche Betei­li­gungs­ge­sell­schaft Meck­­len­­burg-Vorpom­­mern mbH
Mittel­stän­di­sche Betei­li­gungs­ge­sell­schaft Meck­­len­­burg-Vorpom­­mern mbH (MBMV) has been support­ing regio­nal SMEs with project finan­cing for over 28 years. It closes finan­cing gaps and at the same time puts the equity base of small and medium-sized enter­pri­ses on a broa­der footing and makes it possi­ble to realize promi­sing ideas or promi­sing busi­ness stra­te­gies. MBMV is also a relia­ble part­ner for start-ups and entre­pre­neurs. www.mbm‑v.de