NutriLeads develops supportive nutritional ingredients for application in dietary supplements, medical food and functional food products intended for specific target populations seeking to support their immune function.
The current Series A financing will be used to support the further development of NutriLeads’ main ingredient, a novel Immune Modulating Plant Polysaccharide (IMPP). During the next phase, production will be scaled up and two human clinical trials to substantiate the immune supportive effect in different target populations will be performed.
“The current investment supports the fast track development of our lead ingredient for application in dietary supplements, medical foods and functional foods. We are confident that this will help us realize our ambition to partner with ingredient suppliers and food companies to bring the benefits of our health ingredients to patients and consumers” indicates Ruud Albers, PhD, CEO of NutriLeads.
Corporate involvement in disruptive innovation is one of the main topics at F&A Next 2017. As a former Nutrition and Health R&D director at Unilever, consultant to several multinational ingredient suppliers, food and pharma companies, and now as CEO of a small innovative company he is more than qualified to share his thought on the subject.
‘Embracing the startup culture has become something in between a buzzword and a mantra for many corporates over the past few years. I have seen companies employ a number of different strategies in working with startups. The approaches include growing startups inside the company or partnering with existing ones, running acceleration programs or investing in early-stage projects, etc. From a startup point of view it’s probably fair to say that engaging with corporates in any way can be beneficial for a startup provided both parties know what they want from the partnership”.
Ruud continues “I am very pleased that following the successful closure of the seed investment in October 2015 we embarked on a collaboration with DSM Nutritional Products to help scale up production of our lead ingredient from pilot plant to commercial scale production. In addition the coop with DSM Nutritional Products brings credibility and impact.”
Dr Rob Beudeker, VP Innovation Human Nutrition and Health at DSM: “We welcome this collaboration with NutriLeads. They own some interesting technology and we would like to help them bringing this to commercial fruition. Immunity benefits are very relevant for families all over the world.”
Wilco Schoonderbeek, senior investment manager of PPM Oost: “The increasing emphasis on the health dimension of food is very interesting from an investor point of view. There is a clear need and we need innovations and technology to address these needs. Immune support and resistance to infections is a major health concern of consumers and patients alike. Corporates understand they need to facilitate a startup mentality to be able to get access to innovations and technology.”
