LifeSprout, a privately-held aesthetics and regenerative medicine company founded out of Johns Hopkins University, announced that it has closed a $6.5 million seed-stage financing. LifeSprout is using proceeds from the financing round to support clinical development and scale-up of the first products from its Regenerative Matrix technology platform.
Lead participants in the financing included institutional investors Kairos Venture Partners, Triskelion Investments, Maryland Technology Development Corporation, Ginkgo Gofar, and AngelMD, as well as Medytox, Inc., a strategic investor.
LifeSprout's proprietary Regenerative Matrix platform comprises biomimetic, biocompatible materials engineered to look and feel like natural tissue. The first product from this platform – Lumina™ – is a next generation aesthetic filler that combines the proven safety of hyaluronic acid with biostimulatory effects. Lumina™ fillers exhibit a "what you see is what you get" injection profile and offer strikingly natural feel. The company is developing additional cell therapy products designed to offer powerful regenerative medicine solutions to patients with orphan diseases.
LifeSprout also announced the appointment of Adam Gridley as Executive Chairman of its Board of Directors. Mr. Gridley is a pioneer in the regenerative medicine and aesthetics industries, having held corporate and product development roles at BioForm Medical, which developed and launched one of the first soft tissue fillers – Radiesse™. He then served as Senior Vice President of Product Development and Technical Operations at Merz, one of the world's largest aesthetics companies. Most recently Mr. Gridley was Chief Executive Officer of a restorative cell therapy company developing biologics for cartilage repair. He joined the LifeSprout Board of Directors in April 2018.
"We are delighted to welcome a visionary leader – Adam Gridley – to this important role. His addition is a powerful testament to the technology and team we've built at LifeSprout and will be an important catalyst as we look to the clinic," said Sashank Reddy, MD, PhD, co-founder and President of LifeSprout. "In a few years we have taken the technology from inception at Johns Hopkins to preclinical manufacturing of our first products in aesthetic medicine. We have also developed an exciting pipeline of cell therapy products for true regenerative solutions."
"I am excited to join LifeSprout as Executive Chairman. LifeSprout has positioned itself for the future of soft tissue restoration – developing novel biomaterials with regenerative capacity that offer beautiful and natural results," noted Mr. Gridley. "I am looking forward to helping steer the team toward clinical implementation of this exciting pipeline."
"We are very pleased to have this group of sophisticated and diverse investors participate in this seed financing, and we are excited to add Adam to our team," said Eric Goorno, CEO of LifeSprout. "Their commitment to and support of the company during its rapid growth phase is another important validation of our product platform, which is positioned to bring important new benefits to our patient and physician customers. We look forward to initiating our pivotal clinical studies for the Lumina™ filler family, as we advance the product line toward regulatory clearance and commercialization."
About LifeSprout
LifeSprout, Inc. is a privately held company developing revolutionary products for aesthetic and regenerative medicine. The company's Regenerative Matrix platform leverages advances in materials science to create products that look and feel like the body's own tissues. LifeSprout is turning this technology into a suite of products for the millions of patients with soft tissue losses from aging, cancer, metabolic disease, and orphan indications. The company's lead product Lumina™ is a breakthrough family of aesthetic fillers enabling immediate, natural restoration with biostimulatory effects. LifeSprout's next generation cell therapy products use the power of the platform to promote true tissue regeneration. To learn more visit https://www.lifesproutbio.com/.
