Solarea Bio Announces First Close of Series B Financing Round

Funding will support the commercial launch of two medical food products

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., May 8, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Solarea Bio, a clinical stage biotechnology company based in Cambridge, MA developing food-derived microbial-based solutions to aid human health, announced today a first closing of $15m in a Series B financing led by S2G Ventures with continued participation of Bold Capital Partners, Viking Global Investors, and GG 1978 SICAF SIF. A total of up to $25 million is targeted for this round of financing. The funds will be allocated to the commercial launch of two medical foods designed for the dietary management of bone health and rheumatoid arthritis, respectively.

Solarea developed its platform to characterize beneficial microbes that naturally colonize fresh fruits and vegetables, developed them into rationally designed synbiotic consortia called Defined Microbial Assemblages^TM (DMAs^TM) and validated their efficacy in several disease models. The first product, SBD111, a medical food designed to aid in the dietary management of bone loss in postmenopausal women demonstrated significant bone maintenance in a mouse model of postmenopausal osteoporosis and results were published in a peer-reviewed journal. The product demonstrated a safety and tolerability profile comparable to placebo in healthy subjects, and a large efficacy study is ongoing to demonstrate its effects on maintaining bone mass in postmenopausal women. The second medical food product, SBD121, is designed to aid in the dietary management of rheumatoid arthritis and will enter a human study this year.

"We are very excited to see the rapid progression from our founding hypothesis: that microbes from fresh fruits and vegetables have health benefits, to the clinical validation stage, and the upcoming commercial launches. I thank our amazing team for their hard work and dedication to execute on our lofty goals. A big part of the company's success has been the role our outstanding investors played partnering with a great team at Solarea, and we are looking forward to continuing successes as we transition to a commercial stage by launching our medical food products to the market," said Gerardo V Toledo, CEO and co-founder.

Solarea Bio is building a pipeline of other products leveraging the deep understanding of the interactions of DMA^TM products with the immune system. Scientific rigor is one of the company's cores values and it is manifested in the caliber of the data, team, advisors, and collaborators.

"Solarea Bio embodies attributes S2G Ventures seek in the companies we invest," says Matthew Walker, Managing Director, and board member. "These include a an incredibly dedicated team, a clear vision to create products with a positive impact in our society, and a path to commercialize them."

Neal Bhadkamkar, General partner at Bold Capital Partners and board director commented: "It is heartening to see the evolution of Solarea Bio from its beginnings at the Illumina Accelerator. Bold Capital looks forward to the launches of Solarea's first two products over the coming few years. Looking farther out, the company's rich database and strain library positions it to introduce a stream of future products addressing other important health conditions."

About Solarea Bio 
Solarea Bio is a clinical stage biotechnology company based in Cambridge, MA mining the untapped microbial diversity of fresh fruits and vegetables to develop novel solutions for managing inflammatory diseases and enabling people to enjoy long, healthy lives. Solarea has built a best-in-class strain catalog of bacteria and fungi, a database of their genomes, and a computational platform to mine them to develop products across a range of categories including supplements, medical foods, pharmaceuticals, and agriculture.

Contact:

Eric Schott
[email protected]
[email protected]

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SOURCE Solarea Bio