MegaBiome Biosciences Files for IPO Following RMB 60 Million Pre-A Round Led by Honghui Capital to Build a World-Class Microbial Discovery and Industrialization Platform

“MoonBiome was established in August 2015, with microbial discovery as its core competency. Over a period of more than two years, the team traversed over 100 prefecture-level cities across 25 provinces in China. From the snow-covered glaciers of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau to the rugged mountains of Hainan’s tropical rainforests; from the corn and soybean fields of the black soil in Northeast China to remote, abandoned acidic mines in the south; and from the rhizospheres and leaves of wild plants to the fecal and skin samples of healthy individuals in remote areas, the entire company has been dedicated to searching for, cultivating, and screening novel microorganisms from diverse environments, and developing products of significant value to human and plant health from these newly discovered microbes.”

VCBeat (WeChat ID: vcbeat) has learned that Moon Biotech completed a RMB 60 million Pre-A financing round earlier. The round was led by HighLight Capital, with follow-on investments from Yuexiu Industrial Fund, an angel-round investor, and Zhilang Venture Capital. Dr. Jiang Xianzhi, Founder and CEO of Moon Biotech, stated that the proceeds will be used to promote the industrialization of the company’s existing plant microbiome product line and accelerate the early-stage development of human microbiome therapeutics. Moon Biotech has established a globally competitive microbial diversity strain repository and soil metagenomic DNA sample library. To date, it has isolated, preserved, and identified 46,000 strains, more than one-quarter of which are novel species isolated and identified for the first time in China. Additionally, the company has collected and preserved nearly 10,000 environmental metagenomic DNA samples.

After two years of rapid growth, the Moon Biotech team has expanded to 50 members and established a leading microbial discovery technology platform—spanning access to microbial biodiversity, high-throughput (HTP) screening and assay development, fermentation optimization, and formulation development.

Moon Biotechnologies leverages its microbial discovery capabilities as its core competitive advantage.

Dr. Yan Jingran of Honghui Capital, newly appointed to the Board of Directors of MuEn Biologics, stated: “We highly recognize the founding team of MuEn Biologics for their passion, quiet dedication, and outstanding achievements in the industrialization of microbiology. Honghui Capital is committed to fully supporting this team and looks forward to a near future where MuEn Biologics not only reaps substantial returns from its industrialization efforts but also provides the world with an exemplary Chinese model for the conservation and utilization of biological resources.”

“As the lead investor in two consecutive funding rounds, Mr. Lu Rong, President of Guangzhou Yuexiu Industrial Investment Fund, stated, ‘We have full confidence in the entrepreneurial team led by Dr. Jiang Xianzhi of MicrobioTech. Their outstanding R&D capabilities and rare industry experience have enabled them to build a core commercial microbial resource library, which serves as a powerful driver for the development and application of microbial products. Yuexiu Industrial Investment Fund will continue to provide MicrobioTech with robust support in terms of industrial resources and public relations. We also look forward to greater success for MicrobioTech in the research, development, and application of microbial products in the future.’”

It is understood that in recent years, alongside continuous new breakthroughs in basic research, the industrial application of the microbiome has been developing at a high speed, attracting significant capital interest. Notably, Seres Therapeutics and Evelo Biosciences have successfully listed on the NASDAQ in the United States, while Indigo Agriculture raised nearly $400 million in financing within just a few years. Recently, Lodo Therapeutics, a pharmaceutical development company dedicated to identifying and producing bioactive natural products directly from metagenomic DNA sequence information of soil microbes, announced a $1 billion strategic collaboration for drug discovery with Genentech. Currently, no fewer than 80 companies worldwide are focusing on the application and industrialization of the microbiome.

The industrialization of the microbiome is a process that spans from microbial discovery to product development. At its core lies the exploitation and utilization of microbial resources, driven by a deep understanding of the interactions between microbes and their hosts, as well as between microbes and their environment. In the field of microbiology, the discovery and screening of novel microbial resources constitute the prerequisite and fundamental basis for industrial development. As the earliest organisms to emerge and evolve on Earth, microorganisms exhibit remarkable diversity in their habitats and life strategies, enabling them to provide solutions to critical societal challenges in health, environmental protection, energy, and agriculture.

Microbial diversity resources constitute the core technological assets of many multinational biotechnology companies. However, current understanding of microbes remains quite limited, as the vast majority cannot be cultured in laboratory settings; indeed, known microbial species account for only 1% to 5% of the total. Numerous international companies and scientists are actively seeking new methods to explore this “microbial dark matter.” The journey from discovering microbial resources to the industrialization of microbial products requires overcoming multiple technological hurdles, and there is a severe shortage in China of professionals capable of driving such innovation in microbial industrialization. Dr. Jiang Xianzhi introduced that, leveraging years of accumulated technical expertise within the industry, the MoonBiome team has developed unique technological advantages in the discovery, isolation, fermentation cultivation, and rapid screening of novel microbial resources. The company has already established strategic collaborations with numerous research institutions and industry partners both domestically and internationally.

About Moon Biotech

Moon (Beijing) Biotechnology Co., Ltd. was established in 2015 as China’s first innovative biotechnology platform company dedicated to the commercialization of microbiome resources. The company was founded by a group of young scientists and industry elites committed to transforming human life through green biotechnology. Its core team members primarily hail from prestigious institutions such as the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tsinghua University, the University of Science and Technology of China, Sun Yat-sen University, National Taiwan University, the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and renowned overseas universities. They have previously held long-term positions at internationally recognized biotechnology firms and leading domestic research institutes, bringing extensive experience in product development and industrial commercialization.

The company is committed to discovering, preserving, and identifying new microbial diversity resources with significant development potential through internationally leading microbiome culturomics technologies, aiming to establish the world’s largest standardized applied microbial resource center. Based on in-depth microbiome research and data mining, we conduct high-throughput screening of bioactive functional microorganisms and their metabolites to address urgent and critical market demands in sectors such as bio-agriculture, environmental remediation, and biopharmaceuticals, providing customers with first-class microbial products and solutions.

About Honghui Capital

Honghui Capital is an investment fund focused on the healthcare industry, managing dual-currency funds in USD and RMB, with total assets exceeding RMB 6 billion. Honghui Capital specializes in healthcare investments and is committed to identifying and nurturing China’s most outstanding and high-growth entrepreneurial teams and enterprises in the healthcare sector.

About Yuexiu Industrial Fund

Yuexiu Industrial Fund, established in August 2011, is a leading industrial capital operator in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. As a comprehensive asset management institution, the company has formed three core business segments centered on equity investment, mezzanine investment, and fund-of-funds (FOF) investment. Among these, its equity investment focuses on four key industrial sectors: innovative pharmaceuticals, new cultural entertainment, new consumption, and advanced manufacturing. Adhering to the philosophy of value investing, the company is committed to discovering and creating value for Chinese enterprises. Leveraging the industry-finance synergy advantages of Yuexiu Group and rooted in Guangzhou’s extensive state-owned industrial resources, the company actively provides investors and portfolio companies with extensive business synergy and deep resource integration services. To date, the company’s cumulative assets under management (AUM) have reached RMB 50 billion, making it an influential industrial investment institution in South China and across China.

About Zhilang Venture Capital

Zhilang Venture Capital is an early-stage venture capital fund focused on equity investments in high-tech companies. Adhering to the philosophy of value creation and long-term investment, Zhilang Venture Capital extensively invests in technologically leading enterprises in China.