The company, which manufacturers its ingredient in Gilbert, AZ, said in a statement released this morning that additional funds attached to the close of the series B round of financing will bring the total to $23 million.
Prenexus has struggled to some degree to bring its unique prebiotic to market. Branded now as PreneXOS, the prebiotic fiber is sourced from a special strain of high fiber sugar cane, which is grown on organic-certified acreage in the United States. The fiber has shown benefits for promoting the growth of beneficial bacteria in the gut and has done so at lower doses than many of its competitors — as little as one gram.
Ironing out the production tangles
While the proof of concept was promising, the company ran into difficulties during the scale up process. While some quantities of the ingredient have trickled out the door, the commercial scale bottleneck was limiting the ingredient’s growth.
CEO Mike Bush, who helped develop the Ganeden BC30 probiotic ingredient before that business was sold to Kerry, was brought on to help put the effort back on the right track.
“The production plant was complete but it is basically a pilot plant,” Bush told NutraIngredients-USA. “We have brought on a team of what I call superstar manufacturing and R&D folks. We have designed an expansion to a size in excess of 150 metric tons a year of product.”
Low dose, organic certifications seen as differentiators
The prebiotic ingredient has gone through several branding changes, being known at various times over the past several years as AmpliVida and XOS95. Bush said what sets it apart is that it will be the only organic certified XOS manufactured in the US and whose feedstock is grown domestically.