June 9th 2019 – DMC (www.dmcbio.com), an early-stage biotechnology company, announced today that is has raised a Series A equity financing led by Sofinnova Partners. The company also announced the addition to its Board of Directors of Josko Bobanovic, Partner and Manager of the Sofinnova Industrial Biotech Fund. Current investors Capricorn Venture Partners and Breakthrough Energy Ventures also participated in the fundraise. This funding builds on the company’s successful non-dilutive awards to date which exceed $1.8M from the National Science Foundation, the US Department of Energy, and the US Department of Agriculture.
DMC makes bio-based products using enhanced microbial fermentation. The development of microbes and associated bioprocesses has historically been complicated, slow, and costly. DMC is deploying its technology to reduce biological complexity and enhance the speed of development, creating a low cost, fermentation-based manufacturing platform that has the capability to produce a broad diversity of products. The company’s platform enables low cost distributed manufacturing of existing products and new-to-the world products that are only accessible using the precision of biology.
Josko Bobanovic, Partner at Sofinnova Partners and the manager of the Sofinnova Industrial Biotechnology Fund, said: “We have been impressed by a unique technology, an exceptional founding team, and significant potential for rapid commercial growth. This funding round brings together like-minded investors who share the team’s vision of creating a capital efficient, multi-product, biochemicals company.”
“We are excited that Sofinnova appreciates the potential of our proven technology and shares our vision of the commercial path for the company. We look forward to working with them as we bring our specialty amino acids product family into the marketplace and as we continue to build our robust product pipeline,” said Matt Lipscomb, Ph.D., CEO and Co-Founder of DMC.
Rob van der Meij, Senior Investment Manager at Capricorn Venture Partners (the manager of the Capricorn Sustainable Chemistry Fund), and Board member of DMC, added: “We are continuing to invest in DMC because their approach and technology are differentiated in the sector and they have demonstrated strong progress the past 1.5 years. We look forward to working with Sofinnova and the DMC team to support the company’s commercial efforts across multiple global markets.”
Carmichael Roberts, of Breakthrough Energy Ventures stated “DMC’s synthetic biology platform has the potential to transform traditional product and chemical development by dramatically reducing time-to-market and costs. The technical implications of DMC’s science in the fuels and food sectors drew us to the company and we are excited to be part of their journey.”
With this funding, DMC plans to recruit additional top talent in senior management, metabolic engineering, and fermentation for locations in Boulder, CO and Durham NC as it advances its first products to commercial scale.
About DMC
DMC is unleashing the manufacturing power of biology. The company is democratizing metabolic engineering and bioprocess development to accelerate commercial deployment of sustainable bio-based products across multiple markets. The company’s lead product family will provide ingredients for the animal and human nutrition markets. In addition, pipeline product families in development by DMC will address unmet customer needs in sectors that include specialty chemicals, flavors and fragrances, and personal care.
For more information, visit: www.dmcbio.com
About Sofinnova Partners
Sofinnova Partners is a leading European venture capital firm specialized in Life Sciences. Based in Paris, France, the firm brings together a team of professionals from all over Europe, the U.S. and China. The firm focuses on paradigm shifting technologies alongside visionary entrepreneurs. Sofinnova Partners invests across the Life Sciences value chain as a lead or cornerstone investor, from very early stage opportunities to late stage/public companies. It has backed nearly 500 companies over more than 45 years, creating market leaders around the globe. Today, Sofinnova Partners has over €2 billion under management.
For more information, please visit: www.sofinnovapartners.com
About Capricorn
Capricorn Venture Partners, an independent Leuven (Belgium) based manager of venture capital and equity funds, invests in innovative companies with technology as a competitive advantage. It operates under an AIFM license granted by the FSMA (the Financial Services and Markets Authority in Belgium). The investment in DMC is made from the Capricorn Sustainable Chemistry Fund.
For more information, please visit: http://www.capricorn.be/
About Breakthrough Energy Ventures
Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV) invests in companies that leverage innovative technologies to help address climate change. Backed by many of the world’s top business leaders, BEV has more than $1 billion in committed capital to support bold entrepreneurs building companies that can significantly reduce emissions from agriculture, buildings, electricity, manufacturing, and transportation. The fund was created in 2016 by the Breakthrough Energy Coalition.
Visit www.b-t.energy.com to learn more.