Led · Seed · Oct 2023

Algenesis develops bio-based plastics intended to match petroleum-based materials on cost and functionality. Its patented Soleic® technology is a renewable, high-performance, fully biodegradable and backyard-compostable bioPolyurethane made from plants and algae. Soleic® PU is currently used in soft foam applications such as midsoles and insoles for footwear. The company is working to evolve the product to be 100% biobased and received a US$5M grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to scale production of biobased isocyanates from algae oils using a green-flow chemistry process. The new seed funding will be used to expand Soleic® lines into breathable waterproof textiles and injection-molded products like phone cases. Algenesis also plans to bring more processes in-house to strengthen its supply chain and scale production and commercialization.

Led · Seed · Jul 2022

Persephone collects and sequences stool samples to catalog human gut microbes, trains machine-learning models on that data combined with health records, and identifies high-value “superhero” strains. Its core product path includes a consumer probiotic supplement derived from modern human microbiota and therapeutics that could augment immunotherapy. In the near term the company plans a pediatric-targeted, shelf-stable liquid probiotic and a nationwide infant study in partnership with an unnamed infant-health partner. In parallel it is pursuing clinical applications in oncology, aiming to enter the clinic for lung cancer by 2024 and exploring broader indications such as IBS and inflammation. Persephone has collaborations with Ginkgo Bioworks and a large ARGONAUT study with Johnson & Johnson on the gut-immune axis. The company raised a $15M seed round to scale its infrastructure and research and previously got initial funding through Y Combinator in 2018 to build sample-collection systems.