HONG KONG, Sept. 14, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Great Bay Bio (hereinafter referred to as "GBB") is pleased to announce today the completion of its USD 15M Pre-series B funding led by Tiger Jade Capital (hereinafter referred to as "Tiger Jade"). The funding was oversubscribed and upsized with participation from one of the world's top life science MNCs, AEF Greater Bay Area Fund (managed by Gobi Partners GBA), and Vectr Ventures, as well as existing institutional investors. The Pre-series B round was advised by DL Securities, a boutique investment bank based in Hong Kong. Tiger Jade was seeded by TigerMed, one of the largest CROs of clinical trials in PRC and covers over 300 companies/clients in its ecosystem, all of which may require services from GBB directly or indirectly. The other strategic investor is a Fortune 500 life science MNC with a capitalization over USD 200B. Their business spans over 125 countries, thus providing an anchor for GBB's global business expansion going forward. The funds raised will mainly be used to accelerate the development of AI-empowered bioprocessing platforms, the construction of production facilities; as well as the establishment of a global commercial development team. Looking ahead, GBB will strive to develop and provide an "end-to-end" AI-enabled bioprocessing platform to satisfy the R&D and commercial demands of global customers.
Driven by growing global needs for higher R&D and bioprocessing efficiency, GBB pioneers a concept of "AI + Bioprocessing" and aims at a vision of "Global Bioprocessing Made Simpler and More Efficient". Two proprietary AI+CMC technology platforms, AlfaCell® and AlfaMedX®, have been successfully commercialized and used by multiple biopharma companies. Empowered by the AlfaCell® platform, the uncertainties of productivity and stability are eliminated in the cell line development process, thus significantly reducing the workload and improving the efficiency of upstream bioprocess development. The AlfaMedX® platform enables GBB to quickly establish a culture medium library of more than one thousand formulas and provide rapid customized culture medium development services to customers. Currently, AlfaCell®, AlfaMedX® and other AI solutions have been used to improve the CMC process of various biological drugs including fusion proteins, monoclonal antibodies, bispecific antibody drugs, etc. Meanwhile, GBB's end-to-end solutions have supported R&D of synthetic biology, industrial enzyme preparations, cultured meat, and other biomanufacturing fields.
Kingsley Leung, Chairman and Co-founder of GBB, commented, "We are pleased to know that GBB's disruptive innovations in the bioprocessing field are recognized by the market and our robust forward tested data and promising commercial success are accepted by investors. With the support from Tiger Jade Capital and one of the world leading MNC, GBB can quickly integrate into the global biopharmaceutical ecosystem, and accelerate the realization of our vision of "Global Bioprocessing Made Simpler and More Efficient". In turn, GBB will help customers accelerate developmental timelines, reduce the cost and risk of biomanufacturing, ultimately, allow affordable biological drugs to patients in need."
Mr. Jasper Jiang, the partner of Tiger Jade Capital, commented, "We are excited to have GBB in our portfolio, an excellent locally built AI-driven bioprocessing startup in the Greater Bay Area of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao. The fact that GBB stands out in a relatively tough market environment, and receive favor from a top multinational company and other well-known venture capital speak volumes about the company's technological achievements and development prospects. There are several distinctive Hong Kong based funds also joining the funding of GBB, including the Pentepebble, a local medical incubation investment institution that we are exploring to establish an incubator together. We believe that this investment will also better meet the national strategy of vigorously developing the Greater Bay Area and bring confidence to future capital entering the biomedical industry in this area."
About Tiger Jade Capital
Tiger Jade Capital established in 2019, obtained the support and cornerstone investment of China's leading CRO Company TigerMed (300347. SZ, 03347. HK). Its investment fields include early and medium-term equity investments in global medical care fields, such as innovation drugs, CROs and medical equipment.
Since its establishment, Tiger Jade Capital has invested in a number of well-known biomedical companies, including several leading companies in the fields of mRNA vaccine and cell therapy, as well as the biotechs with globally innovative technologies and biomedical enterprises that have been listed or are in the process of listing. The latest fund of the company pays close attention to the policy dividend of the Greater Bay Area and explores the important role played by Hong Kong as an international biomedical research platform for the globalization of Chinese Biomedical enterprises, and actively incubates and looks for early-stage companies with international standards.
About Great Bay Bio
Great Bay Bio (GBB), headquartered in Hong Kong, was founded in 2019 with extensive footprint in the Greater Bay Area. Adhering to the corporate vision of "Global Bioprocessing Made Simpler and More Efficient", GBB is committed to applying AI and other cutting-edge technologies to promote bioprocessing innovations, thus solve pain points, such as long timelines, high cost and low success rate, in drug development. GBB takes improving human life, health and value as its long-term goal.
The core team of GBB is composed of global talents with expertise in medicine, pharmacy, synthetic biology and AI. With a 3000 m2 R&D center and CMC platform, GBB has successfully pushed several biological drugs into the NDA stage, including national class 1 new drugs. During the three years since its establishment, GBB has applied for more than 30 patents for its AI empowered bioprocesses solutions. The resulting AI platforms were successfully commercialized, enabling GBB to establish long-term cooperation with many domestic and foreign leading enterprises.
GBB has attained the titles of National "High-Tech Enterprise" twice in a row by the National High-Tech Enterprise Certification Management Leading Group Office, "Sprouts List Most Valuable Enterprises for Investment in China for the Year 2020 by the Zero2IPO Group, "Top 50 Innovative Biotechnology Companies in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Award 2020" by ZDVC RESEARCH and KPMG China, "Top 15 in the 2021 Merck Greater Bay Area Innovation Bootcamp" and "Spring class of Microsoft accelerator entrepreneurship acceleration plan in 2022".
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