In line with Grand View Research, the worldwide microbiome complement market was estimated at round $9.7 billion in 2024 and is anticipated to develop considerably in coming years, partly resulting from funding by firms like Nestlé, Danone, Bayer AG and Procter & Gamble which have both developed their very own merchandise or acquired microbiome-based manufacturers. Shopper consciousness of digestive well being has additionally propelled the market ahead, in addition to curiosity within the intestine microbiome’s function in total well being.
Regardless of business success, how straightforward is it for firms—from startups to extra established companies—to get financing to both develop microbiome-based dietary supplements and even to get their enterprise off the bottom?
In line with Michael Bush, managing accomplice at GrowthWays Companions, the market remains to be difficult no matter indications of promising financial knowledge.
“I feel there’s such uncertainty out there throughout all sectors,” he stated. “Enterprise capital cash is simply not as obtainable because it was earlier than.”
In response, firms are as an alternative more and more specializing in area of interest or novel merchandise to draw funding. The thought is to get extra particular in regards to the options the dietary supplements present.
“Corporations are beginning with mechanisms of motion they usually’re creating probiotics that ship metabolites,” Bush stated. “It’s simply a lot extra subtle now than it was a lot of years in the past.”
Financing of Microbiome Corporations in 2025
Pendulum Therapeutics, Viome, Resbiotic, and The Good Bug, are amongst a number of firms which have attracted important funding rounds.
Pendulum Therapeutics: $111 million
Viome: over $300 million
Resbiotic: $8 million in Collection A and an extra $14.5 million to increase its product portfolio
Good Bug: $20.6 million in Collection B
Looking for enterprise capital
Making the case for supplementation is now not as a lot of a market problem because it as soon as was. With manufacturers like Pendulum leveraging social media and Hollywood stars like Halle Berry selling probiotics, the class has develop into a family identify.
Recognition and having a base of Instagram followers can strengthen a pitch to enterprise capital, however visibility doesn’t at all times translate into financing.
Brian Peeters, managing member of consulting agency Substrate, stated established firms should make a enterprise case to enterprise capitalists about how they’ve grown their market share within the firm’s core areas within the final 5 – 6 years and why they don’t need to divert funds away from one other a part of the enterprise to offer capital for a brand new enterprise.
“It could appear apparent, however for those who’ve acquired a observe file of success, it’s simpler to get cash,” Peeters stated. “Examine this to somebody who’s doing one thing for the primary time, they usually don’t have that observe file. Clearly, these individuals are going to have a more durable time getting the funding that they’re on the lookout for.”
He stated enterprise capitalists are on the lookout for investments within the well being and wellness house understanding that it’s a trending class however that in addition they need to perceive the scientific parts of biotics. It is a problem when science surrounding pre-, pro- and post-biotics could be sophisticated to grasp. That is one cause why firms ought to focus their pitches totally on outcomes, Peeters added.
It is usually tough for each established companies and startups to achieve funding when there may be typically no precedent for some new merchandise.
“That is the problem because the class evolves,” Peeters stated. “There’s no historical past of those new well being areas with probiotics. There’s going to be a hesitancy from buyers to need to put funds into a brand new enterprise with out that historical past.”
Hesitancy apart, by 2021 there was a five-fold enhance from 5 years prior in enterprise capital funding in microbiome complement firms with investments reaching $488 million globally.
Peeters attributed this to the COVID-19 pandemic the place buyers frolicked at house conducting extra offers, together with mergers and acquisitions.
Different sources of financing
Regardless of a pandemic-fueled funding drive and biotech companies expressing curiosity in complement firms, companies don’t at all times look towards enterprise capital for financing, no less than not initially, stated Vivek Lal, MD, CEO of Resbiotic.
He didn’t.
To determine Resbiotic, a microbiome-based complement firm that connects intestine well being to completely different physique programs, Dr. Lal approached household workplaces for financing—establishments and foundations which have non-public fairness funds typically organized inside ultra-high-net-worth households.
Dr. Lal famous that household workplaces generally have extra time and adaptability to listen to a pitch from a startup than enterprise capitalists. He additionally famous the significance of understanding how the skilled background of an organization’s administration can affect the funding course of.
Household workplaces have been much less impressed by his scientific expertise as a doctor and former Nationwide Institutes of Well being researcher and extra by his background in enterprise working an organization targeted on pressing care, which satisfied funders to take an opportunity.
“I used to be in a enterprise function,” Dr. Lal stated. “I used to be the chairman of the board. I knew what enterprise was, how one can run a enterprise and how one can scale it.”
One other situation for Dr. Lal was his geographical location. His firms have been based mostly in Alabama the place there was little to no ecosystem for both funding, CPG or biotech companies when he sought funding for Resbiotic, he stated.
“Being someplace the place there isn’t a ecosystem or institutional cash was a giant concern for everybody,” he added. “That’s one more reason why I needed to go for these household workplaces reasonably than these massive bases.”
Giant investor bases are likely to even have extra oversight, they’re extra built-in, they usually generally search extra management over decision-making, Peeters stated. Household workplaces have extra flexibility, however the draw back for some companies is that they typically have too shut of a private relationship with firms, he famous.
Bush stated some shut relationships could be useful, as one of the simplest ways to begin a enterprise is with family and friends and even angel buyers.
“You sometimes don’t see a enterprise capital agency simply bounce on some startup thought,” he defined. “It’s acquired to be a reasonably good thought and a great founder group to lift cash proper from the get-go. You’ll sometimes see the enterprise people coming in both earlier than the Collection A spherical or in the course of the A spherical.”
Whether or not it’s a enterprise capitalist or a household workplace, Dr. Lal reinforces the sentiment that buyers want to fund area of interest areas now.
“Prior to now it was all about intestine well being,” he stated. “For the final five-to-seven years, folks have began speaking in regards to the gut-brain axis or particular axis. Our idea was at all times very clear. We knew that completely different components of the organs of the physique behave in a different way.”
He added that clients and buyers are educated in regards to the microbiome and varied biotics now.
“The business is evolving,” Dr. Lal stated. “We’re shifting into an period of precision probiotics or precision microbiome dietary supplements…and that’s what individuals are on the lookout for on the cabinets lately.”
