Singapore agritech startup Peptobiotics bags US$6.2 million in Series A 

SINGAPORE-BASED agritech startup, Peptobiotics, has raised US$6.2 million in a Series A funding round.

The oversubscribed round was led by aquaculture investment, consulting and media company Hatch Blue, with investments from its newly launched US$81 million Blue Revolution Fund.  Peptobiotic’s new investors include Enterprise Singapore’s investment arm Seeds Capital, French equity investor Seventure Partners, Australian agribusiness GrainCorp Ventures and Brazilian agriculture medicine company Farmabase. 

The round was also joined by existing investors Trendlines Agrifood Fund, Ponderosa Ventures and The Yield Lab Asia Pacific, among others. 

On Tuesday (Apr 9), Peptobiotics co-founder and chief executive Jonathan Bester said: “The Series A gives us the working capital to produce larger commercial volumes so that we can solve the industry’s disease challenges and cut antibiotics out of the food supply chain.” 

Founded in 2020, the startup commercialises recombinant antimicrobial peptides – naturally occurring bacteria inhibiting proteins which are a first-line defence in the immune system of many organisms. (*see amendment note)

Peptobiotics said that antimicrobial peptides can kill bacteria as efficiently as antibiotics, with most having a different mode of action that does not lead to antibiotic resistance. The company’s first product aims to address antibiotic abuse in the aquaculture industry. 

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“Antibiotic use in agriculture remains a huge challenge for the industry because many of the so-called alternative products make big performance claims but cannot measure up to the efficacy of antibiotics when applied in the farm environment,” said Bester. 

*Amendment note: A previous version of this article incorrectly described recombinant antimicrobial peptides as naturally occurring bacteria. Recombinant antimicrobial peptides are in fact naturally occurring bacteria inhibiting proteins.