The IP Group has completed its £50 million series B fundraiser for Microbiotica, a microbiome-based therapeutics and biomarkers company in the Group’s portfolio.
Microbiotica was founded in 2016 at the Sanger Institute, with a company mission to explore the medical applications of the microbiome for human disease treatment and therapy.
The IP Group contributed £4 million to the funding.
The company currently holds an undiluted beneficial holding of 18.2% in Microbiotica at a value of £16.1 million.
The IP Group further holds a recorded net unrealised fair value gain of £2.2 million.
The financial injection was the largest microbiome-related fundraiser in Europe on record.
The funds have been allocated to the progression of Microbiotica’s two lead oral Live Bacterial Therapeutics (LBTs), MB097 and MB310, to the first phase of clinical studies.
The financing will further allow the company to expand its discovery pipeline of biomarkers and LBTs in unexplored disease categories.
“The company’s pre-clinical data suggest that, so far, our thesis is proving correct, and we are delighted that the company’s esteemed new investors are joining us for the next leg of this exciting journey,” said Managing Partner of Life Sciences at IP Group Dr Sam Williams.
“As a founding investor in Microbiotica, our thesis was that, by culturing, characterising and stratifying the human microbiome, Microbiotica would be able to identify live biotherapeutics with the greatest chance of clinical success in the microbiome field.”
The Group highlighted the contributions of additional investors to the series B fundraiser, including new investors Flerie Invest, Tencent and British Patient Capital.
The contributors joined existing investors IP Group, Cambridge Innovation Capital and Seventure Partners.
IP Group has a portfolio of investments in startups that have a strong level of intellectual property and close links to universities, including the London-listed Actual Experience, Abington Health, DeepMatter Group and Itaconix.
The IP Group’s share price rose 0.2% to 80.5p in Monday early afternoon trading.