Seventure Invests EUR 1 M (USD 1.25 M) In First Investment Round For MaaT Pharma™

Financing to develop microbiome therapy for severe intestinal dysbiosis

Paris, France, January 9, 2015 – Seventure Partners, one of Europe’s leaders in financing innovation, announces today its investment in MaaT Pharma™, a newly founded French microbiome company. Seventure Partners’ is the first investor in MaaT Pharma™ with a €1 million investment, and has committed to investing a further €1 million on achievement of scientific milestones.

MaaT Pharma™ will be Seventure Partners’ fourth portfolio company in the microbiome field. INRA transfer, the technology transfer office of INRA (French National Institute for Agricultural Research), also becomes a shareholder in the company in this transaction.

MaaT Pharma™ was co-launched as a Seventure-led project in August 2013 with its main co-founders; Chairman Pierre Belichard, serial entrepreneur and currently CEO of Enterome (www.enterome.com); CEO Hervé Affagard, who brings a strong track record of leading operations in the health sector; Joël Doré, who has been trailblazing the microbiome space over the last 30 years as a prominent scientist at INRA, and Pierre Rimbaud, MD, a recognized expert in the clinical development of microbiome-based therapeutic solutions.

MaaT Pharma™’s goal is to become the leader in the gut microbiome restoration arena. The rising number of academic publications on microbiota transplantation have highlighted the important correlation between the microbiome and human health. The company will bring forward a proprietary product resulting in a safe and efficacious restoration of the colonic microflora.

MaaT Pharma™ will use the seed round proceeds to develop a first safe and standardized microbiotherapy solution for hospital use, intended for patients suffering from treatment-induced microbial imbalance (dysbiotic enteropathies). Treating patients in a safe and efficient way with the proprietary MaaT Pharma™ microbiotherapy therapeutic solution will help eliminate gastrointestinal side-effects and will reduce the economic burden of enteropathies and their complications. It will also permit fully efficient and safe use of the existing antibiotics pharmacopeia.

Isabelle de Cremoux, CEO and Managing Partner at Seventure Partners, said: “Phenomenal progress has been made in understanding the role of gut microbiota and its link to overall health. This is an area Seventure knows and understands well, in part thanks to our long established and close connection with INRA. We are therefore able to support the team from MaaT Pharma™ right from the start. We are confident that INRA’s worldwide recognized experience in the field of the human microbiome will provide a scientific advantage, translating into efficacious products to be developed and commercialized by Maat Pharma™.”

- ENDS - Notes to Editors:

About MaaT Pharma™

MaaT Pharma™ is a biotechnology company created to treat important diseases, using the power of gut microbial ecology. MaaT stands for Microbiota as a Therapy and focuses on using the clinical promises of microbiotherapy to develop innovative solutions of clinical relevance to treat unmet medical needs of dysbiosis-related diseases. Our company has been co-founded in 2014, in France, by a well-balanced team made of scientists, entrepreneurs and scientific partners including INRA transfer as well as Seventure as a financial partner. The team's intention is to embrace a societal project designed to deeply change our contemporary medical field.

About the Human Microbiome

The Human intestinal microbiota is a complex personal ecosystem, usually stable, tightly adapted to the human host and in constant symbiotic interaction with his cells and organs. There are nevertheless numerous conditions and clinical practices that impose stress to the balanced microbiota. The word microbiota represents an ensemble of microorganisms that resides in a previously established environment. The gut microbiota (formerly called gut flora) is the name given today to the microbe population living in human beings intestine. It contains tens of trillions of microorganisms, including at least 1000 different species of known bacteria with more than 3 million genes (150 times more than human genes). Microbiota can, in total, weigh up to 2 kg. One third of the human gut microbiota is common to most people, while two thirds are specific to each person.

The microbiota fulfils physiological functions that have a direct impact on health:

  • It helps the body to digest certain foods that the stomach and small intestine have not been able to digest.

  • It helps with the production of some vitamins (B and K).

  • It helps to combat aggressions from other microorganisms, maintaining the wholeness of the intestinal mucosa.
  • It plays an important role in the immune system, performing a barrier effect.

  • A healthy and balanced gut microbiota is key to ensuring proper digestive functioning.


  • About Seventure Partners

    Seventure Partners is a leading venture capital firm in Europe. Since 1997, Seventure has invested in innovative businesses with high growth potential in digital technologies in France and Germany and in the life sciences field across Europe, with currently over €500m in assets under management.

    In life sciences, the four areas of focus include biotechnology and pharmaceuticals, connected health and medtech, industrial biotechnology and cleantech, and last but not least: the microbiome, nutrition, personalized medicine and food. Seventure Partners also considers investments in the field of diagnostics, biomarkers, drug delivery systems, lifestyle healthcare and services.

    Investments can range between €500k and €10m per round, or up to €20m per company, from early to late stage. In December 2013, Seventure Partners successfully launched its ‘Health for Life Capital’ Fund which attracted strategic investments from prestigious organizations including Danone, Tereos, Tornier, Lesaffre as well as entrepreneurs and financial institutions.

    Seventure is a subsidiary of Natixis, the corporate investment management and financial services arm of Groupe BPCE, the second-largest French bank.

    For more information, please visit: www.seventure.com.

    Issued for and on behalf of Seventure by Instinctif Partners.

    For more information please contact:

    At Seventure Partners:

    Isabelle de Cremoux
    Tel: +33 6 77 05 4992
    Email: isabelle.decremoux@seventure.fr

    For Media Enquiries – Instinctif Partners:

    Melanie Toyne Sewell
    Robert Mayer
    Tel: +44 20 7866 7860
    Email: seventure@instinctif.com

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