November 5, 2020

By Lynda Kiernan, Global AgInvesting Media

Archer Daniel Midlands’ venture capital arm ADM Ventures has made a capital commitment to Seventure’s Health For Life Capital (HFLC) Fund II. Based in Paris, HFLC is a leading VC fund and the first European investment vehicle to fund the “microbiome revolution”, according to its website, in the categories of nutrition, health, microbiota, and digital health. 

HFLC funds are stage agnostic, investing in innovation through companies displaying potential for growth from Seed to late-stage points in their maturation. Geographically, the funds focus mainly on the European market, but are also open to opportunities in North America, Israel, and Asia.

“We view Seventure as the premier investor in microbiome startups focused on human health and nutrition, and since 2018, ADM has worked closely with the Seventure team to identify opportunities with microbiome solutions that can ultimately help with dietary supplements and food and beverage applications to serve as functional or proactive solutions,” said Darren Streiler, managing director of ADM Ventures.

The term ‘microbiome” was coined by Joshua Lederberg in 2001. However, despite being named, scientific understanding of the human microbiome has been challenging. What is known is that the human microbiota consists of anywhere between 10 – 100 trillion symbiotic microbial cells primarily made up of bacteria in the human gut. This is the main focus for ADM – the vast, complex bacterial ecosystem within the human digestive tract. 

“With a better understanding of how the microbiome ecosystem works, we can develop functional ingredients for dietary supplements and food and beverage solutions targeted to help improve overall health,” said Streiler.  “We are focused on looking at new, innovative solutions that can lead to a more balanced bacterial system in your digestive tract, otherwise known as a healthy gut, and can help lead to better health.”

Toward this end ADM is dedicated to the discovery of new nutritional ingredients that can be leveraged for preventative health, or to treat common ailments or even chronic conditions in both humans and animals.

Already an established market leader for microbiome solutions, ADM has an award-winning portfolio of ingredients including:

~ NutraIngredients’ 2020 ‘Probiotic Product of the Year’ ADM’s Bio-Kult Migréa®; 

~ 2020 Ingredient of the Year in the Weight Management category, ADM’s Bifidobacterium lactis BPL1;

~ And the 2020 Editor’s Award winner for Functional Food Innovation, ADM’s Bacillus subtilis PXN®21® – which is a live microbial strain that has shown to reduce the aggregation of α-synuclein, which is indicative for future research in Parkinson’s disease.

The existence of a connection between the human gut microbiome and health is understood, however the intricacies of exactly how this connection functions is still being revealed. Meanwhile, consumers continue to be more intentional in their food choice for their functionality in maintaining health, or for mitigating chronic issues.

As much as 60 percent of Americans live with a chronic health issue, according to The Mayo Clinic, and 42 percent live with two or more chronic diseases. And as people look to gain greater control of their health and lives, they increasingly are turning to the foods they eat for answers.

ADM is positioning itself to provide these answers, as the company’s capacity to produce such solutions will soon be significantly expanded, as its new probiotics production facility in Valencia, Spain, is scheduled to be online in 2022. 

“We believe Seventure can help meet the long-term demand we see as the result of the convergence of food and pharmaceuticals and consumers looking more towards bioactives and nutrition for wellness solutions,” said Streller.

– Lynda Kiernan is editor with GAI Media, and is managing editor and daily contributor for Global AgInvesting’s AgInvesting Weekly News and  Agtech Intel News, and HighQuest Group’s Oilseed & Grain News. She is also a contributor to the GAI Gazette. She can be reached at lkiernan@globalaginvesting.com.