China-based biomanufacturing technology developer Bluepha secured RMB430m ($66.3m) yesterday in a series B2 round led by Country Garden Venture Capital, the corporate venturing arm of real estate developer Country Garden.
Septwolves Venture Capital, a vehicle for apparel producer Septwolves, filled out the round along with Fangyuan Capital, FreesFund, GL Ventures, Huaxing Health Capital, Lightspeed China Partners, Qianhai FOF, Qihang Capital, Taihecap and Trinity Innovation Fund.
Founded in 2016, Bluepha uses synthetic biology, data science and automation to manufacture sustainable materials for the consumer goods, healthcare, agriculture and electronics industries. Its products include pathogen detection tools and biodegradable plastic substitutes.
GL Ventures and Lightspeed China Partners co-led a $30m series B round for the company in February this year, investing alongside Septwolves Venture Capital, Frees Fund, Qianhai Fund of Funds, Trinity Innovation Fund, Zhongguancun Development Frontier Enterprise Investment Fund and Zhongguancun Development Qihang Innovation Investment Fund.
Bluepha secured tens of millions of yuan (RMB10m = $1.4m at contemporary rates) in series A-plus funding from Green Pine Capital Partners in May 2020. It came after a $5.7m series A round six months before featuring Frees Fund, Zhongguancun Development Frontier Enterprise Investment Fund, Zhongguancun Development Qihang Innovation Investment Fund and Qianhai FOF.
Frees Fund and Leaguer had taken part in the company’s $1.6m pre-series A round in 2018, which came after a seven-digit amount (RMB1m = $145,000) of angel funding from Frees Fund and Lotus Lake Capital, an incubator operated by Tsinghua University, the previous year.
