Applied LifeSciences & Systems (ALSS) announced today the initial close of a $7 million Series B equity financing. The financing was co-led by Merck Animal Health and Mountain Group Partners. Oval Park Capital, a Raleigh-based early-stage investment firm also has participated in the round.
ALSS integrates its proprietary technologies in high-speed imaging, feature recognition, artificial intelligence, robotics and microfluidics in a system currently developed for the commercial poultry industry. This system can individually and accurately vaccinate up to 100,000 chicks per hour against diseases such as coccidiosis, infectious bronchitis and Newcastle disease.
The Series B investment will allow ALSS to accelerate the commercialization of its automated and individualized poultry vaccination systems.
“At ALSS, we have developed a series of patented platform technologies to rapidly and accurately vaccinate individual animals. This will ensure the best protection against some of the most harmful diseases and significantly increase proactive vaccination to further prevent the spread of disease and reduce the use of antibiotics and chemicals in the protein production industries today. Our initial product line has successfully demonstrated targeting and vaccine delivery at the high speeds and accuracy needed to integrate and support improved bird performance within current commercial poultry operations,” said Ramin Karimpour, ALSS Founder and CEO.
“We look forward to the successful commercialization and launch of our systems in 2022. We are highly excited to continue our partnership with Merck Animal Health, a leader in the global animal health industry, Mountain Group Partners, one of the top investors in Life Sciences and Animal Health industries, and Oval Park, a local early-stage investment firm,” Karimpour said.
“We are delighted with the progress by the ALSS team,” said Stephen Murray, B.V.Sc., executive director, Merck Animal Health Ventures. “Merck Animal Health’s investments in early-stage technology have the potential to deliver meaningful innovation to our customers, which complements our own portfolio of medicines, vaccines and technology services. Leveraging our knowledge of poultry vaccination alongside ALSS is enabling their breakthrough technology to significantly increase vaccination rates and enhance poultry production, management and health outcomes.”
“We are very pleased with the progress that ALSS has made toward commercialization of its disruptive vaccine delivery technology. ALSS’s technology will significantly improve vaccination efficiency and provide a great tool to producers. We look forward to working with ALSS as they take this next step forward into commercialization” said Rob Readnour, Managing Director at Mountain Group Partners.
“The ALSS team has made tremendous progress developing their novel individual vaccine delivery system for the poultry industry,” said Justin Wright-Eakes, Managing Partner at Oval Park Capital. “We are delighted to continue supporting ALSS as it transitions into the commercialization and growth phases, and we’re excited to watch the transformative impact of ALSS’ technology on global protein production in the coming years.”
