Seattle-based Lumen Bioscience announced significant leadership enhancements as the clinical-stage biotechnology company advances its pipeline of orally delivered biologics toward commercial launch. The expansion follows completion of an oversubscribed $30 million Series C financing extension led by WestRiver Group with participation from the Gates Foundation and existing investors.
Strategic Leadership Additions
Jeff Raikes has joined Lumen's board as an independent director, bringing extensive experience from his leadership roles at Microsoft, where he helped build influential software platforms, and Costco, where he gained expertise in global distribution and operational excellence. His background in scaling organizations and expanding product reach will support Lumen as it advances toward commercialization.
The company also promoted Nhi Khuong, PhD, to Executive Vice President and Kole Krieger to Senior Vice President, while appointing David Saunders, MD, MPH, to the clinical development team following his retirement as a Colonel and clinical trialist in the U.S. Army. Board director Erik Anderson has been elected Vice Chairman, working closely with board co-chairs and co-founders Brian Finrow and Jim Roberts.
Rapid Organizational Growth
Since 2023, Lumen's team has expanded by nearly 39%, averaging more than 15% annual growth. The company has inaugurated a second dedicated GMP facility to meet rising demand for clinical trial drug supplies, demonstrating the scaling of its spirulina-based manufacturing platform.
Notable Investor Consortium
The Series C extension attracted a consortium of prominent investors including Matt Horner, Executive Vice President of Global Enterprise at World Wide Technology, Jim Kavanaugh, Chief Executive Officer of World Wide Technology, Adebayo Ogunlesi of Five Raynham LLC, David Siegel, Co-Founder and Co-Chairman of Two Sigma, and Jerry Yang, Founder of Yahoo.
Clinical Pipeline Progress
The leadership enhancements follow recent success of investigational LMN-201 for recurrent C. difficile infection in the Phase 2 segment of the RePreve Clinical Trial. The fresh funding supports acceleration of Lumen's late-stage clinical programs and commercial readiness activities.
Spirulina-Based Platform Technology
Lumen has developed a spirulina-based drug discovery, manufacturing, and delivery platform targeting highly prevalent diseases that have been difficult to address with conventional biopharmaceutical tools. The platform offers potential advantages including increased speed, straightforward assembly of cocktail therapeutics, mass-market scale, and exponentially lower costs than legacy approaches.
The company's pipeline includes investigational oral biologic drugs and dietary supplements designed to act locally in the gut, targeting conditions such as weight loss, C. difficile infection, inflammatory bowel disease, kidney stone disease, and traveler's diarrhea.
"This milestone affirms the transformative power of spirulina-based GMP manufacturing," said Brian Finrow, CEO of Lumen Bioscience. "As our clinical programs continue to mature, we are thinking more and more about commercialization and distribution. The new investors joining us through WestRiver Group have built some of the world's most impactful organizations in the past 40 years."
Erik Anderson, Founder and CEO of WestRiver Group, emphasized the platform's potential impact: "Lumen's visionary approach to engineering biologics for oral GI delivery is not just a leap forward, it's a promise to democratize access to world-class therapeutics and dramatically lower costs. This provides billions around the globe with the promise of easy access to revolutionary and effective treatments."
