Clara Biotech hits $850K in seed funding roundup, preparing to launch first product
June 15, 2021 | Startland News Staff
An emerging biotech startup in the region is reporting a busy spring with a significant seed round already raised and key steps under way to launch its product: a solution that removes manufacturing roadblocks for breakthrough drugs.
“We’re in an exciting and growing space and currently have low regulatory hurdles in the research stage,” said Jim West, co-founder of Clara Biotech, a Lawrence-based company already buoyed by its founding team’s expertise in exosome technologies, pharmaceutical development, engineering and building life science companies.
Elevator pitch: Clara Biotech is building an exosome isolation platform that solves a huge roadblock around manufacturing that helps the entire biopharma industry make future breakthrough drugs that may not otherwise get approved. We founded Clara Biotech to help move exosomes from research to patient.
Jim West, Clara Biotech
“We’re looking for smart money investors who can help us develop our market position, scale the technology and become the platform that companies can use to get exosome therapies to the patients who need them most,” he continued, detailing Clara Biotech’s momentum in a company snapshot update.
Off the heels of announcing an undisclosed investment by Kansas City-based Fountain Innovation Fund, the startup has raised $850,000 for its seed round, West said, with additional investments from angel investors in Boston, San Francisco, India and Kansas City.
Dr. Mei He, Clara Biotech
Clara Biotech recently received a tranche of angel tax credits, still available to qualified investors, he added.
The seed round is expected to help the company debut its beta ExoRelease exosome isolation kit, as well as continue to scale, West said.
Click here to read Clara Biotech’s full snapshot update.
“We are generating revenue and launching our first product,” he said. “At a recent conference for exosome therapeutics, sample preparation quality was the major limiting factor in manufacturing and receiving FDA approval. Our groundbreaking solution resulted in a 70 percent lead conversion rate of all companies attending (which includes investment groups and competitors). We’re currently working with and growing a number of paying early customers including some major pharmaceutical players.”
Founded in 2018 at the Bioscience and Technology Business Center in Lawrence, Clara Biotech’s therapeutic applications range from personalized medicine, targeted drug delivery, immunotherapy, and orphan and rare diseases. It’s solutions are focused on early cancer detection, Alzheimer’s disease, and virus detection.
Click here to learn more about Clara Biotech and how its technology works.
This story is possible thanks to support from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, a private, nonpartisan foundation that seeks to build inclusive prosperity through a prepared workforce and entrepreneur-focused economic development. The Foundation works to change conditions, address root causes, and break down systemic barriers so that all people – regardless of race, gender, or geography – have the opportunity to achieve economic stability, mobility, and prosperity.
For more information, visit www.kauffman.org and connect with us at www.twitter.com/kauffmanfdn and www.facebook.com/kauffmanfdn.
2021 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
ScaleUP! KC touts revenue success stories as latest small biz cohort opens applications
Growth outcomes don’t always follow entrepreneurs’ graduation from ScaleUP! KC — sometimes they come before the game-changing, no-cost program is even complete, its leaders said. Rickey Leathers made significant strides in his business, Savvy Salon — co-owned with his wife, Lenora — while enrolled in the cohort, he said. “I successfully opened a second location…
Modern-day stress triggers make life harder; getting healthy shouldn’t add to those burdens, says KC Wellness Club
The shift to focusing on wellness instead of illness should be fun, said Heath Wessling, a former wellness expert at Cerner-turned-entrepreneur, who noted sustained growth or change is unlikely if a person is unhappy with the process. “We like to find ways to show you how it’s not a drag,” said Wessling, founder and owner…
Give them a drink, get to the real: This craft KC podcast serves entrepreneur vulnerability
Two Kansas City entrepreneurs hope to amplify the voices of local change makers by getting them behind the microphone with a drink in their hand. The Behind the Bar with Ashley and Hailee podcast sees co-hosts and friends Ashley Kendrick and Hailee Bland Walsh welcome their fellow Kansas City entrepreneurs into Kendrick’s basement for a…
A sneaky wink in each brutal piece: How one artist’s work paints his reality within a world of big, heavy events
Emerging Kansas City contemporary artist Addison “A.L.” Parrish believes that to create a work of art, he must first observe and understand the world around him. “I feel like, as an artist, my main job isn’t necessarily painting,” Parrish said. “It’s seeing and being — not detached — but in a neutral state of observation.”…