By Zac Ezzone, Triangle Inno
A Durham company has secured additional capital as it nears commercialization of its first product.
Elo Life Systems has raised $20.5 million from new and existing investors, bringing the company’s total Series A round to $45 million.
Novo Holdings and DCVC Bio led the funding, which included participation from Hanwha Next Generation Opportunity Fund, AccelR8 and Alexandria Venture Investments. The raise adds to a $24.5 million funding round that Elo disclosed in early 2023. The additional capital will help Elo start scaling up production of its first product. Since spinning out of Durham-based Precision BioSciences (Nasdaq: DTIL) in late 2021, Elo has focused internally on its research and development operations. The company has reached the point where it’s ready to move externally and begin producing its product at a broader scale, said CEO Todd Rands
Elo is developing a sweetener that’s derived from monk fruit, which grows in remote areas of China, making it difficult to access and harvest. Using molecular farming, Elo is taking the same ingredient from monk fruit and producing it in other crops that are easier to grow at scale. This includes developing a liquid form of its sweetener using watermelons and a powder version from sugar beets.
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