AI-based biotech peptide discovery company Nuritas is fueling its next growth stage with $42 million in fresh capital, led by M&G Investment with participation from McWin Capital Partners, Grosvenor and ECBF.
The fresh funding will go towards expanding the company’s market penetration by developing more ingredients and product formulations, Nora Khaldi, founder and CEO of Nuritas, told FoodNavigator-USA.
“The first phase of Nuritas has been focused only on technology development and scientific development of its ingredients. The second phase, which we started last year, was starting to launch our ingredients to market and integrating those ingredients in various formulations and various applications globally,” Khaldi said.
She added, “Now, the other phase is really growing that further, so more market penetration, more product formulations. And a lot of funding is going to focus on that.”
Nuritas grows with GRAS ingredient, strategic partnerships
Founded in 2014, Nuritas is on a mission to accelerate the discovery of peptides through its AI platform – Magnifier – for use in healthier foods, beverages, supplements and more, Khaldi explained.
Also, Nuritas collaborated with Givaudan, BASF Nestlé, Mars and the Sumitomo Corporation and expects to make another partnership announcement in the new year, Khaldi noted. These strategic partnerships are “essential at the beginnings of a company” from a revenue standpoint and are needed to commercialize Nuritas’ peptides, she added.
“In areas we are not really expert in, they bring a lot of expertise, and we help them invent something that allows them to actually have a bigger market share,” she elaborated.
Personalized nutrition: ‘The problem today is not an AI problem’
Amid a myriad of global health crises, AI provides a way to develop ingredients faster, as more consumers – especially Gen Z shoppers – seek out products with healthy and nutritious ingredients, Khaldi explained.
“There is a massive link between the health epidemic and health crisis we have and the types of products that are produced and consumed every day, and it is really linked directly to the ingredients that are in those products. A lot of the ingredients are 70 to 100 years old. They have not been invented for consumers of today,” Khaldi said.
She added, “There is a big emphasis on health, and that is just growing. So, creating products that really address that consumer is needed. And there is a long way between what we have today and there, and that is what we are focused on.”
However, AI might have a ways to go before unlocking the holy grail of improving consumer health — personalized nutrition — Khaldi noted.
AI needs vast amounts of clinical data on human health to provide consumers with health and nutrition recommendations, and ultimately finished products to match their needs, Khaldi explained. While the technology (i.e., AI, wearable, etc.) is available, data is still needed to fully understand all the relationships that factor into someone’s health and well-being, she added.
“The problem today is not an AI problem. It is more of a data problem in terms of data collection of a really personalized nature,” Khaldi noted.
