Leip­zig — c‑LEcta, a leading global biotech­no­logy company focu­sed on enzyme engi­nee­ring and appli­ca­ti­ons in regu­la­ted markets such as the food and phar­maceu­ti­cal indus­tries, has closed a finan­cing round with Capri­corn Venture Part­ners and the invest­ment company bm|t. The capi­tal increase provi­des the company with growth capi­tal as well as valuable access to an inter­na­tio­nal network.

c‑LEcta alre­ady has a diver­si­fied share­hol­der struc­ture. In addi­tion to the foun­der Dr. Marc Stru­halla, private inves­tors from the indus­try and German insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors, the company has now been able to expand its circle of share­hol­ders with two new inter­na­tio­nal inves­tors. The lead inves­tor Capri­corn Venture Part­ners is an inde­pen­dent, inter­na­tio­nally orien­ted invest­ment company based in Leuven (Belgium). Capri­corn invests in inno­va­tive, tech­no­logy-driven compa­nies and has a multi­di­sci­pli­nary team of expe­ri­en­ced invest­ment mana­gers. As part of the finan­cing round, Capri­corn parti­ci­pa­ted through two funds, Capri­corn Sustainable Chemis­try Fund NV and Quest for Growth NV.

The German invest­ment company bm|t invests in high-growth tech­no­logy compa­nies led by teams of entre­pre­neurs. bm|t inves­ted via MFT Mittel­stands-Fonds Thürin­gen GmbH & Co. KG. The new capi­tal will be used in parti­cu­lar to finance the appr­oval, market launch and scaling of products from the project pipe­line on a commer­cial scale, the further deve­lo­p­ment of the pipe­line and the expan­sion of inter­na­tio­nal sales.

Ludwig Goris, Invest­ment Mana­ger of Capri­corn, explains the invest­ment in c‑LEcta: “We see that global mega­trends and chal­lenges in human nutri­tion are paving the way for indus­trial biotech compa­nies like c‑LEcta. Since its incep­tion, c‑LEcta has built a remar­kable track record in tech­no­logy and product deve­lo­p­ment and has been able to vali­date this with a growing custo­mer base of leading phar­maceu­ti­cal, chemi­cal and food ingre­di­ent compa­nies. In addi­tion, the highly quali­fied team in Leip­zig convin­ced us.

Foun­der and CEO Dr. Marc Stru­halla and his moti­va­ted team have crea­ted a great company that is at an attrac­tive inflec­tion point where the current product pipe­line provi­des the foun­da­tion for an acce­le­ra­ted growth trajec­tory. We are proud to be instru­men­tal in this funding round and to contri­bute to c‑LEcta’s success.”

Kevin Reeder, CEO of bm|t (Photo), adds: “bm|t, which has an exten­sive life scien­ces port­fo­lio, is very opti­mi­stic about the invest­ment in c‑LEcta. We were very impres­sed by the strong team, the successful deve­lo­p­ment and the compel­ling product pipe­line. We believe c‑LEcta is well posi­tio­ned to tran­si­tion into a large biotech­no­logy company.” The two new inves­tors expand the group of share­hol­ders, which previously included the follo­wing inves­tors: SHS Gesell­schaft für Betei­li­gungs­ma­nage­ment mbH, High-Tech Grün­der­fonds Manage­ment GmbH, KfW Banken­gruppe, Dr. Marc Stru­halla, Warning Betei­li­gungs GmbH, Dr. Bader Betei­li­gungs GmbH and Arthur Stein­metzBetei­li­gungs GmbH.

In order to streng­then the manage­ment as well as the execu­tive board and to support the targe­ted growth, Thomas Pfaadt (45) has recently been appoin­ted CFO at c‑LEcta. He enri­ches the company with his expe­ri­ence in corpo­rate finance and M&A. Previously, Thomas Pfaadt worked for a private, owner-opera­ted opera­tor of reha­bi­li­ta­tion clinics and for a family-owned inte­gra­ted health­care group. He also gained expe­ri­ence as an invest­ment banker and consul­tant focu­sed on the health­care indus­try. Thomas Pfaadt comm­ents on what attracts him to c‑LEcta: “c‑LEcta is a young, lean and dyna­mic company and at the same time a global player. We are addres­sing the major chal­lenges of modern human nutri­tion. A growing popu­la­tion and an incre­asing demand for healthy, natu­ral foods require solu­ti­ons through enzyme tech­no­lo­gies that the chemi­cal indus­try cannot provide. We are plea­sed to have attrac­ted the two new inves­tors to further deve­lop our company and seize the oppor­tu­ni­ties that present themselves.”

c‑LEcta is a fully inte­gra­ted biotech­no­logy company focu­sed on enzyme engi­nee­ring and biopro­cess deve­lo­p­ment for regu­la­ted markets such as the food and phar­maceu­ti­cal indus­tries. c‑LEcta is based in Leip­zig and curr­ently employs around 60 people. The company is broadly posi­tio­ned and covers a large part of the value chain: the rese­arch and engi­nee­ring of enzy­mes through to commer­cial produc­tion as well as the manu­fac­ture of other high-quality biotech­no­lo­gi­cal products are part of c‑LEcta’s service reper­toire — either as in-house deve­lo­p­ments or in close coope­ra­tion with indus­trial part­ners. c‑LEcta has comple­ted more than 30 enzyme engi­nee­ring projects in the last 5 years with a success rate of >90%. Just a few weeks ago, c‑LEcta became the first company to announce a major breakth­rough in a process to mass produce a plant-based sweete­ner with a sugar-like flavor. In addi­tion, two other products with high market poten­tial are at an advan­ced stage of deve­lo­p­ment and the project pipe­line includes seve­ral promi­sing candi­da­tes for the multi-billion euro food ingre­di­ent market. The finan­cing is inten­ded to enable c‑LEcta to grow stron­gly and to

About c‑LEcta
c‑LEcta is a fully inte­gra­ted biotech­no­logy company focu­sed on enzyme engi­nee­ring and biopro­cess deve­lo­p­ment for regu­la­ted markets such as the food and phar­maceu­ti­cal indus­tries. c‑LEcta is based in Leip­zig and curr­ently employs around 60 people. The company is broadly posi­tio­ned and covers a large part of the value chain: the rese­arch and engi­nee­ring of enzy­mes through to commer­cial produc­tion as well as the manu­fac­ture of other high-quality biotech­no­lo­gi­cal products are part of c‑LEcta’s service reper­toire — either as in-house deve­lo­p­ments or in close coope­ra­tion with indus­trial part­ners. c‑LEcta has comple­ted more than 30 enzyme engi­nee­ring projects in the last 5 years with a success rate of >90%. Just a few weeks ago, c‑LEcta became the first company to announce a major breakth­rough in a process to mass produce a plant-based sweete­ner with a sugar-like flavor. In addi­tion, two other products with high market poten­tial are at an advan­ced stage of deve­lo­p­ment and the project pipe­line includes seve­ral promi­sing candi­da­tes for the multi-billion euro food ingre­di­ent market. The funding is expec­ted to enable c‑LEcta to grow stron­gly and lift food ingre­di­ents out of the project pipe­line and into commer­cial produc­tion scale.

CEO Dr. Marc Stru­halla explains the core tech­no­logy of c‑LEcta and the capi­tal increase: “The perfor­mance requi­re­ments for enzy­mes used in indus­trial proces­ses are in most cases very speci­fic and diffe­rent from natu­rally occur­ring vari­ants. Enzy­mes ther­e­fore need to be adapted to indus­trial condi­ti­ons by enzyme engi­nee­ring and c‑LEcta has one of the most effi­ci­ent tech­no­logy plat­forms in this field. For enzyme opti­miza­tion as well as for the deve­lo­p­ment of arti­fi­cial enzyme acti­vi­ties, we use proprie­tary methods inspi­red by nature. The indus­trial appli­ca­tion of these tech­no­lo­gies holds great market poten­tial. The strong finan­cial base and valuable inter­na­tio­nal network we have gained through this finan­cing round now gives us the oppor­tu­nity to exploit the full poten­tial of our tech­no­lo­gies and our people. With Capri­corn Venture Part­ners and bm|t, we were able to bring on board two active inves­tors who can contri­bute signi­fi­cantly to our inter­na­tio­nal growth ambi­ti­ons. I am all the more plea­sed that Thomas Pfaadt will support us as our new CFO. Our goal is for c‑LEcta’s tech­no­lo­gies to be used in many things in ever­y­day life in the future.”

About Capri­corn Venture Partners
Capri­corn Venture Part­ners is an inde­pen­dent Euro­pean mana­ger of venture capi­tal and equity funds inves­t­ing in inno­va­tive Euro­pean compa­nies with a compe­ti­tive tech­no­lo­gi­cal advan­tage. It is based in Leuven (Belgium) and is licen­sed by the FSMA (Finan­cial Services and Markets Autho­rity in Belgium).

About bm|t
Erfurt-based bm|t betei­li­gungs­ma­nage­ment thürin­gen gmbh (bm|t) is the largest growth inves­tor in Thurin­gia. bm|t invests in inno­va­tive compa­nies with high growth poten­tial in all indus­tries and phases of the company life cycle.

About c‑LEcta
c‑LEcta is a fully inte­gra­ted, world-leading biotech­no­logy company focu­sed on enzyme engi­nee­ring and biopro­cess deve­lo­p­ment for regu­la­ted markets such as the food and phar­maceu­ti­cal indus­tries. The Leip­zig-based company has estab­lished itself as a leading provi­der in the realiza­tion of high-quality biotech­no­lo­gi­cal products, whether in in-house deve­lo­p­ments or in close coope­ra­tion with indus­try. c‑LEcta curr­ently employs around 60 people.

c‑LEcta deli­vers cost-effi­ci­ent and sustainable produc­tion proces­ses that open up new markets and enable better pene­tra­tion of exis­ting markets. The company excels in the rapid and effi­ci­ent deve­lo­p­ment of best-in-class biotech solu­ti­ons and the successful launch and commer­cia­liza­tion of the resul­ting products. This allows c‑LEcta to unleash the unique poten­tial of its core tech­no­lo­gies. c‑LEcta alre­ady has more than 10 successfully marke­ted, high-quality, indus­trial biotech products.

About High-Tech Gründerfonds
The seed inves­tor High-Tech Gründerfonds(HTGF) finan­ces tech­no­logy start­ups with growth poten­tial. With a total volume of 892.5 million euros distri­bu­ted over three funds (272 million euros Fund I, 304 million euros Fund II, 316.5 million euros Fund III) and an inter­na­tio­nal part­ner network, HTGF has alre­ady supported 506 start-ups since 2005. His team of expe­ri­en­ced invest­ment mana­gers and startup experts supports the young compa­nies with know-how, entre­pre­neu­rial spirit and passion. The focus is on high-tech start-ups in the soft­ware, media and Inter­net sectors, as well as hard­ware, auto­ma­tion, health­care, chemi­cals and life scien­ces. More than €1.8 billion in capi­tal has been inves­ted in the HTGF port­fo­lio by exter­nal inves­tors in over 1,300 follow-on finan­cing rounds to date. The fund has also successfully sold shares in more than 90 companies.