Biohm Health LLC, the microbiome startup in Cleveland, has raised $7.5 million in equity.
The oversubscribed round was led by Middleland Capital's VTC Ventures, Biohm Health said on Thursday. Middleland Capital is a Washington, D.C.-based venture capital firm that invests in food and agricultural technology companies.
Jobs Ohio Growth Capital Fund, Cleveland Life Science Advisors and JumpStart Inc. were among other investors in the funding round, the company said in a statement.
Biohm Health uses a microbiome datasets that combine bacterial and fungal sequencing — among the largest in the world — to help food, beverage and dietary supplement companies formulate their health products, the company said.
The microbiome is the millions of bacteria, fungi, parasites and viruses inside the human body, according to the Harvard School of Public Health. Biohm was the first to address the critical link between fungi and bacteria in gut health, the company said.
Feeding beneficial microorganisms in the body, especially those in the human gut, is important to promoting health, the Harvard school said.
"This raise will allow us to further develop our AI technologies, removing the guesswork in our targeted formulation process," said Sam Schatz, Biohm's president, in the company's statement.
Biohm's datasets are based on research by Mahmoud Ghannoum, a professor and director of the Center for Medical Mycology and Mycology Reference Laboratory at Case Western Reserve University's University Hospitals Case Medical Center.
Over the last year, Biohm has expanded its relationships with some global ingredient companies to offer a suite of services, such as bioinformatics, testing and clinical trial support, that help develop products, the company said.
The new funding will enable Biohm to extend its clinical services to medical practitioners and retailers nationwide, the company said.
"Biohm has a proven track record of applying innovative science to identify microbial (fungal and bacterial) imbalance within the gut and translating these discoveries into meaningful products and ingredients," said Brian Mixer, managing director with Middleland Capital, in a statement.
Middleland Capital's funding is aimed at helping Biohm "bring new science-backed products to market," Mixer said.
