PhageLab, a biotechnology company developing bacteriophage-based applications to seek and destroy multidrug resistant bacteria in the livestock industry, announced a $11 million funding round with investment from Nazca, Collaborative Fund, Water Lemon Ventures and individual investor Kevin Efrusy.

The funding will enable PhageLab to advance its pipeline of phage-based solutions and establish a commercial position in Brazil, its main target market and expand its technology into the U.S. PhageLab will also use the funding to expand its global team, which currently has close to 100 employees across Latin America and Europe.

Bacteriophages are small viral particles that can recognize and eliminate pathogenic bacteria and are a natural alternative to antibiotic use for the treatment of livestock infections. Antibiotic-resistant outbreaks in livestock farming have been increasing, due to the high emergence rate of multidrug treatment-resistant bacteria.

PhageLab’s proprietary microbial bioinformatics platform is designed for the search and development of bacteriophage-based treatments. The platform employs AI to generate “customized cocktails,” that can effectively manage pathogenic bacteria in the livestock industry and reduce antibiotic dependence. The training dataset for this platform is based on more than a decade of experimentation data and tested phage repositories, to create one of the world’s largest industrial bacterial databases. PhageLab uses this library to create custom solutions in 45 days, that is safe and effective for use to eliminate livestock bacteria.

"PhageLab is focused on progressing breakthrough science that provides long-term solutions to today’s global antibiotic resistance challenges," said Kevin Efrusy. "The company is a true pioneer in the industry, bringing not one, but two never before seen phage-based solutions to market that have tremendous potential to innovate and advance sustainability in our food system and human health. Unlike traditional biotechs, PhageLab has a shorter development time to commercialization at lower cost of capital. The company is already making an impact in addressing the growing health concern of multidrug antibiotic resistance."

PhageLab has a marketed product that eliminates and reduces the presence of Salmonella spp. in broiler chicken farms, called Inspektor. PhageLab is about to launch its E. coli product for broiler chicken farms and develop products to prevent infectious diarrhea in pigs. PhageLab also has a service for clients that identifies, detects and characterizes microorganisms within livestock production.