UC Davis's probiotics spinout secured an undisclosed amount as Bow Capital backed the first close of a series D round with a $55m target.
Evolve BioSystems, a US-based probiotics developer spun out of University of California (UC) Davis, reached the first close of a $55m series D round co-led by agricultural conglomerate Cargill.
Investment firm Manna Tree co-led the first tranche, the size of which was not disclosed and which also included Bow Capital, a venture capital firm anchored by University of California.
Medical products group Johnson & Johnson and food producer Campbell Soup participated through Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC and Acre Venture Partners respectively. The round also included Spruce Capital Partners and Horizons Ventures.
Evolve was spun out of UC Davis’s Foods for Health Institute in 2014, and is researching and developing probiotic products intended to maintain a healthy gut microbiome: the term for the aggregate of microbes present in the human stomach.
The company’s lead probiotic product, Evivo, consists of a strain of B infantis bacteria which is believed to be vital to the development of infants’ digestive and immune systems. It plans to use the series D funding to continue the commercialisation of its probiotics.
Evolve completed a $1m seed round in 2014 and collected $9m in a 2015 series A that included Tate and Lyle Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of packaged food provider Tate and Lyle Ventures, as well as Horizons Ventures and unnamed individuals.
Spruce Capital Partners led the company’s $20m series B round in 2017, investing together with Tate and Lyle Ventures, Acre Venture Partners, Horizons Ventures and Bow Capital.
Evolve then raised $40m in a 2018 series C round co-led by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Horizons Ventures that also featured Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC, Acre Venture Partners and Tate and Lyle Ventures.
– A version of this article first appeared on our sister site, Global Corporate Venturing.
