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Lumen Bioscience is located in Seattle, Washington, and was founded by Brian Finrow and Jim Roberts on April 1, 2017. The biotechnology company is making a manufacturing platform for the mass production of the blue-green algae Spirulina (Arthrospira platensis) — an algae most well known for its use as a health supplement. Lumen Bioscience is using biotechnology tools to engineer strains of Spirulina to make commercially available high value proteins and other molecules for use in nutritional supplements, cosmetic, medical, and food products.
On December 5, 2017, Lumen Biosciences raised $13 million in a combination of series A funding and a grant from the US Department of energy. This funding was used to launch Lumen Bioscience's first product made using Spirulina that is a natural colorant to be used in the food and cosmetics industries.
On June 13, 2018, Lumen Bioscience announced the company will be receiving triple the funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation — the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation previously donated funding to Lumen Biosciences in January, 2018 — for the development of low cost antibodies produced by Lumen Bioscience's Spirulina expression platform that can block or limit the growth of pathogenic bacteria.
On December 5, 2017, Lumen Bioscience announced the company is receiving a grant from the US Department of Energy worth $1,800,000.
On December 5, 2017, Lumen Bioscience closed their series A funding round, raising $11,200,000 in capital from Bioeconomy Capital and Avista Development.
