Monday, July 16, 2007

Waltham protein startup takes in $1.5M

By Ryan McBride

After five years spent developing a high-speed tool for protein analysis, Protein Forest Inc. is about five months away from its maiden product launch, said CEO Russell Garlick.

The Waltham startup completed a $1.5 million mezzanine round of financing last month to fund beta tests of its digital ProteomeChip system at undisclosed labs in Michigan and Florida, according to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing and Garlick.

"This is the most exciting point -- taking the product out to customers," said Garlick.

Much of the $1.5 million bridge round came from existing investor Lansing Brown Investments, a private equity firm in Boston, the CEO said. Protein Forest expects to close a $5 million Series C round in October to fund the product launch in January 2008.

Garlick said he's hopeful previous investors in the firm's $14 million Series A/B round in 2003 would help fund the Series C financing. The Series A/B round was led by S.R. One Ltd., the West Conshohocken, Pa.-based VC fund for British drug maker GlaxoSmithKline PLC; Danish medical technology firm Novo AS; and Boston VC firms Boston Millennia Partners and IDG Ventures.

Protein Forest aims to sell its chips and analyzers into the $200 million U.S. market for systems used to prepare samples of protein mixtures for mass spectrometry as well as the $150 million domestic market for instruments used in identifying proteins for drug discovery, according to the company.

But the startup is sure to run into hefty competition in those markets, which are now served by industry giants such as Waltham-based Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. and the GE Healthcare division of Fairfield, Conn.-based General Electric Co.

With nine employees, Garlick said, Protein Forest is busy gearing up for the beta tests of its systems slated to begin July 23.

"It's really intense right now," the CEO said.