World Agrochemical Network Chinese Network Report: Moon (Guangzhou) Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Moon Bio") announced that it has recently completed a C+ round of financing of 300 million yuan, which is exclusively invested by SDIC Juli. This round of financing is also the second time that Moon Biotech has received the support of the national team fund after the introduction of the SDIC Venture Fund in the C round of financing. The new round of funds will be mainly used to promote the large-scale production and commercialization of more bio-innovative products of the company, as well as the expansion of its own commercial microbial strain bank and component library, and the further improvement of the biomanufacturing technology platform.
This round of financing is of great significance for SDIC Group to lay out and promote the development of the mainland biomanufacturing industry. Biomanufacturing is based on industrial biotechnology as the core, using microbial cells, enzymes, combined with chemical engineering technology to process target products. In this field, microbial chassis, gene elements, and enzyme molecules are the cornerstones of synthetic biology and biomanufacturing, and are the "chips" of the biomanufacturing industry, while the diversity of microbial strain resources is the fundamental guarantee for the discovery and development of new gene elements, new chassis strains, and new enzyme molecules. With the support of financing, Moon Biotech will continue to invest in the construction of its own microbial strain resource library and component library, and is committed to becoming the core driving force of China's biomanufacturing industry and helping to build a new engine for the bioeconomy.
Moon Biotech, a platform-based biotechnology company focusing on microbial discovery and biomanufacturing, has built a complete industrial technology system from discovery, screening, transformation to application of microorganisms, and established the world's largest microbial strain bank and gene element bank with the highest biodiversity, and preserved more than 270,000 microbial strains with independent intellectual property rights. Relying on high-standard strain resources, in-depth microbiome research and data mining, as well as a leading synthetic biology technology platform, the company efficiently develops and provides first-class bio-based products and solutions for bio-agriculture, biomedicine, microbial protein and other subdivisions.
Strain Resource Bank
In the bio-agriculture sector, Moon Biotech focuses on the development and application of a new generation of agricultural biological agents and trait genes, and has obtained 34 microbial agent product registration certificates, completed more than 15 biological pesticide products that have been developed and are being registered, and listed more than 20 highly innovative functional microbial agent products, serving an annual cultivated land area of more than 20 million mu, and growing at a rate of 3 times per year, significantly improving crop production efficiency. The company's first large-scale agricultural microbial intelligent manufacturing factory in Changdejin City, Hunan Province was officially completed and put into operation in July last year, with an annual output of more than 20,000 tons of microbial preparations. At present, the company has established close cooperation with leading agricultural companies such as Syngenta Group, FMC, and ADAMA. Following the signing of a project cooperation agreement with Syngenta in 2021, the two parties have joined hands again this year to launch a new phase of microbial diversity-based trait gene exploration project to accelerate the cracking of the "genetic code" of the seed industry.
The first phase of the plant in Muenjin City
In the biopharmaceutical sector, Moon Biotech currently has three clinical drugs under development and multiple preclinical drug pipelines, including tumors, obesity, type 2 diabetes, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis and other therapeutic areas. The self-developed innovative live biologics MNC-168 enteric-coated capsules are the first live tumor drugs approved for clinical trial in China and abroad, and are currently being studied in Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital. The self-developed and innovative live weight loss drug MNO-863 is the first live bacteria drug suitable for weight loss/metabolic syndrome in China. The company has successively established cooperation with domestic and foreign pharmaceutical giants such as Novo Nordisk, Hengrui Pharmaceutical, Merck China Innovation Center, etc., and has reached clinical cooperation with Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital, PLA 301 Hospital and other medical institutions.
In the microbial protein sector, Moon Biotech focuses on discovering, screening and transforming target production strains that can produce edible and feed alternative proteins with high efficiency, low cost and scale from the huge domestic fungal biodiversity resources, so as to change the traditional production mode that can only rely on planting, breeding and fishing to obtain protein, so as to achieve the mission of "asking for protein from microorganisms". At present, the company has screened a number of super strains with excellent comprehensive traits from more than 10,000 candidate strains, with a protein content of more than 55%, and completed the process scale-up in the self-built tonnage pilot production line. At present, 2 production strains have entered the stage of registration and declaration of new resource food. The company has reached cooperation with Fuxiang Pharmaceutical, a listed company, to carry out technical research and industrialization in the field of microbial proteins, and completed foreign trade export orders for microbial proteins, realizing a closed loop of commercialization.
Biopharmaceutical/Microbial Proteins
For the successful completion of the C+ round of financing, Dr. Jiang Xianzhi, founder, chairman and CEO of Moon Biotech, is especially grateful to investors for their recognition. "We are very grateful for SDIC Juli's support and trust in us. This year marks the 9th year of Moon Biotech's establishment, and in these 9 years, we have been fortunate to continue to receive encouragement and support from all parties, and walk hand in hand with a group of like-minded people. At present, Moon Biotech is in a critical stage of development, in the biomanufacturing industry full of opportunities and challenges, we have always remained the same, driven by microbial science and technology innovation, based in China to provide more accessible, more effective and more competitive biomanufacturing solutions and biomanufacturing products to the world. ″
SDIC Juli said: SDIC Juli will continue to carry out strategic investment and ecological layout of the biomanufacturing industry under the strategic deployment of SDIC Group to develop the national biomanufacturing industry, make full use of the industrial resources of SDIC Group, strengthen the post-investment management and post-investment empowerment of Moon Bio, and work with all shareholders of Moon Biotech to jointly increase support for Moon Bio, accelerate the better and faster development of Moon Bio, and strive to achieve the strategic goal of building Moon Bio into an important technology platform for national microbial resource exploration and biomanufacturing. Create good economic and social benefits for investors.
About SDIC cohesion
SDIC Juli Investment Management Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "SDIC Juli"), a subsidiary of SDIC Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "SDIC Group"), is a fund management company initiated by the Professional Committee of State-owned Investment Companies of the China Investment Association (SDIC Committee) and jointly funded by SDIC Group, state-owned investment companies and social capital of various provinces and cities. The original intention of the establishment of the company is to give full play to the platform role of the State Investment Commission, join hands with member units, provide financial services to the real economy, and promote the adjustment of the national economic structure and industrial upgrading. The company operates independently in accordance with the requirements of market-oriented operation and professional management, adheres to the strategic investment of leading enterprises in the industry, and is committed to building a first-class private equity fund management institution in China. The target scale of the fund is 50 billion yuan, and the initial fundraising scale is 10 billion yuan.