New Paradigm Investment's Pre-A Investment in 'Gukmin Bio'

Kookmin Bio Establishes Foundation for Microbiome Regulation Innovative Materials and New Drug Development through Investment Attraction

New Paradigm Investment (left), Kookmin Bio CI. [Photo by each company]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Jong-hwa] New Paradigm Investment, the operator of TIPS, announced on the 19th that it has made a Pre-A investment in Kukmin Bio Co., Ltd., a microbiome research and development (R&D) specialized company.

Kukmin Bio, which received investment from New Paradigm Investment, was established in 2019 and is a startup in the next-generation new growth engine biohealth microbiome industry. Microbiome is a compound word of microbiota and genome.

Kukmin Bio is an innovative biohealth R&D company that researches, develops, and produces microbiome bio food and pharmaceutical materials. It is a subsidiary of Kukmin University Technology Holdings Co., Ltd., which commercialized the original research achievements of the BK21 Plus Bio Food and Pharmaceutical Materials Project Group at Kukmin University. The company has launched functional health foods such as 'Kukmin Yak Kong Soy Milk' and 'Jeju Namul Kong Soy Milk.'

Currently, it is accelerating the development of preventive medicine microbiome regulatory materials and new drug candidates that resolve the imbalance of intestinal microbial flora. In particular, it is attracting attention for developing new drugs using differentiated microbiome 'postbiotics' materials targeting human-derived probiotics. Postbiotics is a technology that utilizes safe fermented food microorganisms, that is, metabolites produced by probiotics or inactivated safe fermented food microorganisms, and is an innovative technology expected to be developed as a preventive and therapeutic agent for gut-related diseases in the future.

Park Je-hyun, CEO of New Paradigm Investment, said, "The new material microbiome industry is expected to expand from dairy-centered food and beverages and health functional foods to healthcare and cosmetics fields, driving the entire market," adding, "We decided to invest after seeing the high potential of Kukmin Bio's postbiotics new drug material technology."

Seong Moon-hee, CEO of Kukmin Bio (Dean of the College of Science and Technology at Kukmin University), said, "We have already secured core technology, established a research pipeline, and completed a technology development roadmap, along with GMP production and clinical partnerships," adding, "With this investment, we plan to focus on mass production of postbiotics materials and advancement of formulation development technology."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.