Microbiotica's $45M Raise Signals a New Era for Microbiome Treatments

Jan de Vries · 2026-10-16

Microbiotica, a British biopharma company, just announced the first close of a €42 million ($45 million) Series C round. That's a big deal for a company developing orally-dosed, precision microbiome medicines. The financing was led by British Business Bank, with participation from Tencent, IP Group, Cambridge Innovation Capital, Flerie Invest, and Seventure Partners. All existing Series B investors joined in, too. Tim Sharpington, the CEO, put it simply: "This financing marks an important next stage for Microbiotica." He credits the team's progress in turning their genomics-driven platform into clinical-stage products and building a scalable, cost-effective manufacturing process. Now they're focused on taking MB310 into Phase 2 trials for ulcerative colitis. ### Why This Matters for Ulcerative Colitis Patients Ulcerative colitis is a tough condition—chronic inflammation of the colon that can seriously impact daily life. Current treatments help, but they don't work for everyone. Microbiotica's approach uses a precision microbiome medicine to target the gut bacteria associated with the disease. In a Phase 1b study, MB310 produced statistically significant clinical remission with no safety issues. That's the kind of result that gets investors excited. As Carmine Circelli from British Business Bank said, "If it confirms the promise seen in Phase 1b, [it] has the potential to be a major breakthrough in the treatment of ulcerative colitis." ### The Bigger Picture: European Biotech Is Heating Up Microbiotica's raise is part of a wave of recent European biotech investments. In 2026 alone, we've seen: - Germany's mbiomics secure an additional €12 million ($13 million), bringing its Series A to €30 million ($32 million). - UK-based OutPost Bio raise €2.9 million ($3.1 million) to expand its human microbiology modelling platform. - France's Bionyra Pharma secure €143 million ($155 million) for inflammatory disease treatments, including IBD. - Paris-based Generare raise €20 million ($22 million) for microbial-genome-based drug discovery. - London's Alchemab Therapeutics receive €29.3 million ($32 million) from British Business Bank. Together, these deals represent about €207.2 million ($225 million) in new financing—and that jumps to €249.2 million ($270 million) when you include Microbiotica's round. Clearly, investors see huge potential in microbiome therapeutics. ### How Microbiotica's Platform Works Founded in 2016 as a spin-out from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, Microbiotica has built a genomics-driven microbiome platform. It combines a diverse culture collection, a proprietary human Reference Genome Database, advanced bioinformatics, and machine learning. When applied to clinical trial data, it can identify bacteria linked to favorable outcomes in specific patient groups. That's a powerful tool. It means they can potentially design treatments that work better for the right patients. And they're not doing it alone—partnerships with MSD, Cancer Research UK, Genentech, the University of Adelaide, and Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust show serious industry backing. Dr. Sam Williams of IP Group echoed the enthusiasm: "We have been very impressed by Microbiotica's progress... There is an important opportunity to advance Microbiotica's precision microbiome approach into a larger clinical study." So what's next? All eyes are on the Phase 2 trial of MB310. If it delivers, Microbiotica could be on the verge of something truly transformative for people living with ulcerative colitis. And for the European biotech scene, it's another sign that the continent is a serious player in life sciences innovation.