MORRISVILLE, N.C.– TARGAN (formerly Applied LifeSciences & Systems (ALSS)) announced today it has secured $35 million of Series C equity financing. The financing was co-led by Mountain Group Partners and NovaQuest Capital Management. Existing investors Merck Animal Health and Oval Park Capital also participated in the round. TARGAN integrates its proprietary technologies consisting of high-speed imaging, feature recognition, artificial intelligence, robotics, and microfluidics in a system currently developed for the commercial poultry industry. This system can individually and accurately vaccinate up to 100,000 chicks per hour against diseases such as coccidiosis, infectious bronchitis, and Newcastle disease. In addition, TARGAN has developed a unique and fully automated system that can determine the gender of individual chicks to allow separate sex rearing by poultry producers.
The Series C investment will allow TARGAN to accelerate the commercialization of its automated and individualized poultry vaccination and gender identification systems.
“From its conception, TARGAN’s purpose has been to address the growing global demand for a healthier, more sustainable food supply through the development and application of novel technologies,” said Ramin Karimpour, founder and CEO of TARGAN. “We are most delighted that our great progress has led to NovaQuest joining our existing investors in this series. With this round, we will launch our targeted, individual vaccination and gender sorting technologies for poultry. Precise bird vaccination enables poultry producers to protect each bird from harmful diseases and significantly reduces the reliance on chemicals, therapeutics, and antibiotics. Additionally, automated gender identification will allow for separate sex rearing that reduces feed cost and waste while optimizing bird nutrition.”
“Merck Animal Health has supported TARGAN from the beginning of their journey. It is rewarding to see the team continue to grow and develop their groundbreaking technology for poultry customers around the world. We are pleased to continue to support the ongoing journey and partnership,” said Stephen Murray, Lead, Merck Animal Health Ventures.
“We are very excited to continue to support TARGAN on its journey to help poultry producers be more efficient. The pandemic has only further highlighted the need to create technologies that reduce labor and improve bird health. TARGAN does this through a very innovative technology. Also, we are very happy to include NovaQuest in the investor syndicate. Their extensive experience in biotech investing will be very helpful as TARGAN progresses into full commercialization,” said Rob Readnour, Managing Director at Mountain Group Partners.
“We are thrilled to co-lead the Series C round with an outstanding syndicate of investors. TARGAN’s impressive technology and team are well-positioned to bring significant innovation to the hatchery, where poultry production starts,” said Brian Axe, Managing Director at NovaQuest Capital Management.
“We are pleased to continue supporting the TARGAN team as they accelerate commercialization in the global poultry industry and explore new applications of their precision animal health technology platform,” said Justin Wright-Eakes, Managing Partner at Oval Park Capital.
Wyrick Robbins Yates & Ponton LLP acted as legal counsel to NovaQuest. Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, PC acted as legal counsel to Mountain Group.
