Funding will accelerate the commercialization of solutions that speed up therapies for obesity, diabetes, and cancer across diverse populations.
Obatala Sciences’ solutions provide research scientists in pharmaceutical companies, biotech, academia, and government laboratories with models that more accurately mimic human biology and pathology. Obatala Sciences’ solutions drive improved drug success rates, while significantly decreasing the cost and time to bring therapeutics to market.
Obatala Sciences’ solutions include human-derived hydrogels for growing cells in 3D, adult human stem cells from a biobank of diverse populations, mediums for growing and differentiating cells, and complete tissue chip kits, such as fat-on-a-chip products that are used as platforms for drug discovery and development.
NEW ORLEANS, Oct. 13, 2022 -- Obatala Sciences, a New Orleans biotechnology company recognized for speeding up therapies for obesity, diabetes, and cancer across diverse populations, today announced the closing of a $3 million Series A finance round co-led by être Venture Capital and Ochsner Lafayette General Healthcare Innovation Fund II and joined by Benson Capital Partners, Elevate Capital, and The Hackett-Robertson-Tobe Group.
The funding will be used to further the commercialization of first-of-its-kind, research-enabling products and a platform for drug discovery and development. These solutions, provided to pharmaceutical companies, government labs, and researchers, are designed to accelerate the study and prevention of diseases in the fields of obesity, diabetes, cancer, and regenerative medicines.
“Recently the FDA has signaled the need to improve predictivity by reducing the use of animal-derived tissues, which have a high failure rate, while the NIH has been calling for greater diversity among patient populations in testing. Obatala Sciences’ diverse human-derived products are the exact solution designed for these market directions,” said Jennifer Kuan, partner at être Venture Capital.
“Obatala’s solutions enable their customers—research scientists in pharmaceutical companies, biotech, academia, and government laboratories to significantly reduce failure rates, reduce the time to market, and thereby reduce costs. Combine that with Obatala’s extensive intellectual property portfolio, manufacturing strength, and rapidly growing customer base, and you can see why Obatala is positioned to be a leader in the 3D culture market.”
“We are thrilled to have the support of our investment partners. Their belief in us and their commitment to support minority-led companies and communities like New Orleans is changing the landscape for biotech companies like Obatala Sciences,” said Obatala Sciences CEO Trivia Frazier, M.B.A., Ph.D.
“This funding will accelerate the commercialization of our pipeline products as we work toward our milestones, said Frazier. "These include the buildout of our lab at The Beach at UNO, a Research Park District located near the University of New Orleans campus, obtaining our ISO certifications, expanding our North American and international distribution network, and deepening our sales, marketing, and customer support teams to support our growing global customer base.”
The Market Demand
Today, medical research and new drug development are hindered by the dependence on 2D cell culture and animal-derived data which yield high failure rates. In addition, current pre-clinical and clinical drug testing does not include representation across diverse patient populations. Responding to these shortcomings, Obatala Sciences has developed a portfolio of patented and patent-pending solutions, including human-derived hydrogels for growing cells in 3D, adult human stem cells from a biobank of diverse populations, media for growing and differentiating cells, and complete tissue chip kits, such as fat-on-chip systems, which are currently available, and pancreas-on-a-chip, which is under development. These kits provide an essential platform for drug discovery and development, and when these tools are combined, they provide researchers with more accurate, human-based data across diverse populations.
Obatala Sciences, a New Orleans biotechnology company, was founded in 2017 to enable diversity in clinical research and speed up the development of improved therapies for diseases like obesity, diabetes, and cancer, and advance the current state of research in tissue engineering and regenerative medicines. The company has an established, robust pipeline of human-derived hydrogels for growing cells in 3D, adult human stem cells from a biobank of diverse patient populations, media for growing and differentiating cells, and complete tissue chip kits, such as fat-on-chip systems (currently available), and pancreas-on-a-chip systems (under development). These kits provide an essential platform for drug discovery and development. When these tools are combined, Obatala Sciences’ products provide research scientists in pharmaceutical companies, biotech, academia, and government laboratories with more accurate models that mimic the human condition and enable a better understanding of the pathology they are investigating. As a result, Obatala Sciences’ solutions drive improved drug success rates, while significantly decreasing the cost and time to bring therapeutics to market. For more information, visit obatalasciences.com.
être is a women-owned venture capital firm dedicated to investing in solutions for a better world. The firm seeks out mission-led companies, with a particular focus on underserved entrepreneurs and those with limited access geographically to capital sources. être offers equity and debt financing, pre-seed, seed, and series funding, along with supportive advisory services. To learn more, visit etrevc.com.