Chinese Startup Raises $14.6M to Expand Production of Recombinant Breast Milk Proteins

Chinese biotech startup Guoke Xinglian has secured ¥100M ($14.6M) in Series A+ funding to scale up its precision-fermented human milk proteins, starting with lactoferrin.

Beijing Guoke Xinglian Technology Co, a company working on human-identical milk proteins, has secured ¥100M ($14.6M) to reach industrial-scale production.

The Series A+ funding round was led by Shanghai Zhuiguang Julian, Lenovo Capital, and a fund under Changjin Holdings, taking the firm’s total raised past ¥200M ($29.2M) since its establishment in 2021.

The startup uses precision fermentation to replicate “active proteins” found in breast milk, specifically those with human-derived glycosylation modifications, known as glycoproteins. Its first product is lactoferrin, an iron-binding whey protein that has become the darling of the fermentation sector.

Built on technology from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guoke Xinglian is a “leader” in the active glycoprotein sector, according to Liao Jieying, partner at CEC Capital Group, which advised the company on the funding round.

“Uinactive structural proteins, Guoke Xinglian’s first product, lactoferrin, is driven by the philosophy of ‘originating from mothers, giving back to the maternal and infant market’, bringing disruptive changes to the fields of functional personal care for perinatal women, food supplements, and infant health,” said Liao.

Why Guoke Xinglian is targeting human lactoferrin

Precision fermentation involves inserting a molecular sequence into microbes to teach them to produce specific compounds upon fermentation. The technology has been in use for decades, enabling us to manufacture insulin, vitamin supplements, rennet, and more.

Guoke Xinglian combines the technology with gene-editing techniques to create a chassis cell bank, and has developed a series of proteins that are bioidentical to those found in human milk.

Its focus on gycoproteins is a nod to their ability to create a biological ID code that directly regulates immune response, cellular communication, and metabolic stability. It’s starting with lactoferrin because this is the most abundant immune glycoprotein in breast milk.

Lactoferrin is revered for its gut health and immune-strengthening properties. It’s used to treat low iron levels during pregnancy, lowers the risk of respiratory tract infections, and promotes cell growth. The protein is present in cow’s milk too, but in concentrations 10 times smaller than human milk.

Unlike its bovine counterpart, bioidentical human lactoferrin can match the structure and function of proteins naturally present in the human body, and is also gentler and more effectively absorbed.

The protein has two iron-binding sites, enabling it to bind and transport iron ions – this gives it its antibacterial and antiviral properties, making it suitable for use in health supplements, infant formula, women’s wellness, functional nutrition, and more.

However, purified lactoferrin is hard to obtain, so its supply is limited and costs are astronomical, ranging from $600 to $2,000 per kg. Precision fermentation enables companies to produce much larger volumes at a cheaper cost.

A food-grade yeast to produce human milk glycoproteins

A key challenge in replicating human-identical lactoferrin is mimicking the glycosylation structure. By attaching sugar molecules to different positions on a protein, this process affects its folding, stability, antigenicity and resistance to proteolysis (the breakdown of proteins into amino acids).

But Guoke Xinglian claims its technology makes it the only company to have expressed human milk glycoproteins via food-grade yeast. It has developed a chassis cell from Kluyveromyces martensii, creating an expression platform with a short production cycle. Through glycosylation editing, the startup’s chassis introduces key groups to gradually replicate the human glycan structure.

The Chinese company will now use the fresh capital to scale up its AI-driven platform towards industrial levels, and support the global market expansion of its core functional proteins and peptides.

Its human lactoferrin has already entered the trial production stage, and it’s aiming to enable access to the protein to both domestic and overseas companies. Given that this is a novel protein made from precision fermentation, Guoke Xinglian would require regulatory approval from authorities in the regions it wants to commercialise in.

So far, only TurtleTree Labs, Helaina, Vivici, and All G have been cleared to sell precision-fermented lactoferrin (whether bovine or human) – all four can sell their ingredients in the US, and the latter also has clearance in China for its bovine lactoferrin.

All G has been working on a breast milk equivalent as well, which is already being produced on a grams-per-litre scale. The ingredient’s distinct glycosylation and bioactivities make it “preferential in natural applications such as infant and clinical nutrition, where there is scientific rationale and growing commercial demand,” co-founder and CEO Jan Pacas told Green Queen last year.

Meanwhile, Helaina’s human lactoferrin, effera, is already available in around a dozen products across women’s wellness, gut health, recovery, and performance. And TurtleTree has launched its bovine-identical LF+ ingredient in IronKind, an iron supplement sold under its consumer brand, Intentional.