Clara Biotech hits $850K in seed funding roundup, preparing to launch first product

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.

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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.

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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.

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