Nebula Biocides receives millions in seed funding
This brings the start-up a major step closer to its goal of obtaining approval for the highly effective disinfectant
With a total investment of 1.6 million euros, the start-up Nebula biocides, founded in 2019, can now really take off: The approval of the novel disinfection process Sporosan® is supported through seed financing by the High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), the Mittelständische Beteiligungsgesellschaft Mecklenburg-Vorpommern mbH (MBMV) and a strategic investor operating in the field of cleaning and disinfection equipment.
Team of Nebula Biocides: from left to right Dr. Ansgar Schmidt-Bleker, Anke Horsfield, Dr. Jörn Winter, Dr. Katja Fricke, Stefanie Schneider
Nebula Biocides
"We are very pleased to have a strong business partner on board along with two experienced and highly networked financial investors", Dr. Jörn Winter, founder of Nebula Biocides.
Together with his colleague Dr. Ansgar Schmidt-Bleker, also founder and CEO of Nebula Biocides GmbH, he had discovered the novel disinfection process in 2016. As part of their work at the Leibniz Institute for Plasma Science and Technology (INP), the physicists identified the substance peroxynitrite acid as active agent and developed the Sporosan® disinfectant on this basis. In this process, two starting components react with each other for a short time, providing a highly disinfecting effect during this period.
"Sporosan® not only kills bacteria and viruses; even persistent bacterial spores have no chance of survival thanks to the new process", Dr. Ansgar Schmidt-Bleker, founder of Nebula Biocides.
In the future, this will also prevent infections with the dangerous hospital germ Clostridioides difficile, which leads to severe diarrhea and is often fatal, especially in previously ill patients. The researchers have thus achieved a breakthrough – so far there is no disinfectant with a comparably strong and rapid effect that is at the same time environmentally friendly and gentle in use.
The significance and potential of the active substance were also recognized by the three investors, whose participation enables the financing of studies required for regulatory compliance.
"We are very proud to welcome Nebula Biocides with their highly disruptive chemical innovation to our portfolio. The underlying technology promises to create numerous sustainable application opportunities", Dr. Nikolaus Raupp, Investment Manager at High-Tech Gründerfonds.
With the help of the investors, the company, which now consists of a team of five, can pursue two paths at once: The approval of Sporosan® as a biocidal product, making it available for everyone as a hand and surface disinfectant by presumably 2028. In parallel, the Nebula team is working intensively on solutions for the sporicidal reprocessing of medical devices with the aim of marketing the disinfectant itself as a medical device. With the strategic investor, an industrial partner who is excited in using Sporosan® for his medical devices has already been found; market launch is expected in 2024. Furthermore, the start-up is already receiving inquiries from other interested companies from a wide range of industries every week, which underlines the broad significance of Nebula’s innovation in the healthcare, pharmaceutical and food sectors.
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