DSM Invests in US Probiotics Company 

05/11/07 DSM Venturing, the corporate venturing unit of Royal DSM N.V., announced that it has participated in a financing round in Ganeden Biotech, Inc., a US probiotics company which markets dietary supplements focused on digestive health. Ganeden’s products are based on its unique position in a spore forming and lactic acid producing bacterium, Bacillus coagulans. This investment will contribute to DSM’s innovation ambitions in the Nutrition cluster, where the company holds leading positions in the markets for ingredients for human and animal nutrition and health and personal care. In this USD 12 million round DSM was joined by Capital Resource Partners, a Boston, Massachusetts-based private equity firm.

Ganeden’s proprietary Bacillus coagulans strains, particularly GanedenBC30, distinguish themselves from other probiotics particularly with respect to longer shelf life, better gastric acid survivability and resistance against temperature and pressure during processing. Currently the company sells its digestive health products in over 40,000 stores all over the US. Ganeden also runs a licensing business to exploit the potential of its BC strains in other applications such as animal feed, functional foods, feminine hygiene products and environmental solutions.

Krijn Rietveld, Senior Vice President New Business Development at DSM Nutritional Products comments: ‘The area of probiotics is exciting and quickly developing with applications in both human and animal health and nutrition. We think that Ganeden Biotech’s BC30 strains have unique properties which could enable many new probiotic applications in both food and feed that we want to follow closely as an area of potential future business for DSM. Besides our venturing investment we are currently evaluating possible further partnering with Ganeden for the development of specific applications.’