Applied LifeSciences & Systems (ALSS) announced today the close of an $8 million Series A round of equity financing. The financing was co-led by Merck Animal Health, and Mountain Group Partners (MGP). Oval Park Capital, a Raleigh-based early stage investment firm, also participated in the round. ALSS integrates its proprietary technologies in high speed imaging, feature recognition, artificial intelligence, robotics & microfluidics in a system that can individually vaccinate up to 100,000 chicks per hour against diseases such as coccidiosis, infectious bronchitis and Newcastle.
The investment will allow ALSS to accelerate the development of its automated and individualized poultry vaccination system.
“At ALSS, we are focused on development of new and unique technologies to rapidly and individually vaccinate animals, ensuring the best protection against some of the most harmful diseases impacting the protein production industry today. We expect our systems to have a major impact on improving the industry’s productivity, profitability and sustainability,” expressed Ramin Karimpour, ALSS Founder and CEO. “We are highly excited that Merck Animal Health, a leader in the animal health market, and MGP, one of the top investors in Life Sciences and AgTech, have expressed their confidence in our team and mission by their investment in ALSS.”
“Merck Animal Health seeks to identify and invest in companies with early-stage technologies, devices and solutions with the potential to augment and complement our own portfolio of vaccines and pharmaceutical products to improve animal health, welfare and performance,” said Stephen Murray, BVSc., Head of the Merck Animal Health Ventures team. “Leveraging Merck Animal Health’s knowledge of poultry vaccination processes, our investment with ALSS will enable the development of its innovative technology that has the potential to significantly increase vaccination rates and enhance poultry production for our customers.”
“We are very excited about the potential that ALSS has to transform animal health management through better vaccination. This should lead to improved health for animals and better outcomes for producers. As an investor, we look at consumer trends, and consumers are demanding alternatives to the use of antibiotics to control disease. We believe ALSS will offer a great alternative to the use of these technologies to satisfy the needs of consumers and producers as well,” said Rob Readnour, a Managing Director at Mountain Group Partners.
About Applied LifeSciences & Systems
Based in Raleigh, NC, ALSS is a Biomedical Systems company poised to transform animal protein production industries worldwide by bringing affordable, individualized care technologies to the market. World meat consumption is expected to increase by 100% by 2050. The world’s growing population along with the popularity of animal protein is responsible for the growth in meat consumption. While the industry has improved efficiency, production processes, and veterinary care to meet this increasing demand, the recent demand for antibiotic free protein, driven by consumers and regulatory changes, makes the achievement of this target challenging in the future. When antibiotics are removed from the production process, animals not vaccinated or not fully vaccinated are susceptible to infections leading to sickness and death. The industry trend towards antibiotic free production has led to producers’ demand for novel solutions to improve health standards and vaccination procedures allowing for similar level of productivity in the absence of antibiotics and other chemicals. ALSS is bringing advanced technology solutions to the industry to address this demand. For more information, visit www.als-s.com.
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