Peptobiotics secures $6.2m to market agri-focused antibiotic substitute

Photo credit: Peptobiotics

Singapore startup Peptobiotics has raised US$6.2 million in series A funding. The new capital will help the firm take its antibiotic alternative for the farming and aquaculture sector to market.

Peptobiotics co-founder and CEO Jonathan Bester said the series A raise gives the company the working capital “to produce larger commercial volumes” of its product to cut antibiotics out of the food supply chain.

Founded in 2020, the company aims to combat the farming and aquaculture space’s overreliance on antibiotics, which opens the door for bacteria to be more resistant.

This is especially concerning in the US, where roughly 80% of antibiotics are used in animals, the company said.

Peptobiotics’s solution uses recombinant antimicrobial peptides, which are naturally occurring bacteria-inhibiting proteins.

“Our focus at Peptobiotics is to use biotech to create a real agricultural antibiotic alternative that is effective for farmers, clean for nature, humane for animals, and safe for consumers,” said Bester.

Hatch Blue, an aquaculture-focused enterprise, led the oversubscribed round. Other participants included Singapore’s Seeds Capital, France’s Seventure Partners, Australia’s GrainCorp Ventures, and Farmabase, a Latin American animal healthcare company.

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