Shumway Capital

Opportunity

In 2013, we were first introduced to emerging microbiome therapies developed in the lab of preeminent Australian clinician-scientist, Dr. Thomas Borody. These therapies showed promise to cure disease by re-establishing naturally occurring human gut bacteria, thereby restoring intestinal equilibrium. Through rigorous research of the underlying mechanism of action, compelling clinical data, and demonstrable commercial opportunity, the team saw incredible potential to develop a platform of drugs to disrupt decades of antibiotic-driven and immunosuppressant treatment paradigms.

Seed Investment

In 2015, Shumway Capital funded the creation of Crestovo as a platform for microbiome-based therapies backed by the pioneering research of Dr. Borody and Dr. Alexander Khoruts. Shumway Capital provided assistance to Crestovo with strategic development, operational build-out, and recruitment of the senior management team to build Crestovo’s pipeline of orally-delivered microbiome therapies. Over the course of 2+ years, Crestovo established several clearly differentiated competitive advantages:

• Early partnership with pioneering key opinion leaders in the industry
• Development of a product candidate with attractive commercial attributes
• Accelerated and capital-efficient path to launch two sponsor-led Phase 2 clinical trials
• Investment in GMP manufacturing capability
• Creation of an industry-leading intellectual property estate

Partnership

In 2017, Shumway Capital saw an opportunity for Crestovo to join forces with Finch Therapeutics, which had highly complementary, yet differentiated expertise, including:

• A highly capable, hard-charging and visionary founding team
• Robust data science platform
• A deep, global network of clinical partners
• A mature donor & CMC/manufacturing capability
• Vast pipeline of exploratory clinical programs

The 50/50 merger of Crestovo and Finch slot the combined ‘Finch Therapeutics Group’ as the transformational leader in the human microbiome. Post-merger, Shumway Capital continues to support management, providing merger integration support, fundraising support in the successful $36 million Series B financing, ongoing strategic and operational support, as well as significant Board-level engagement. Finch Therapeutics Group is well-positioned for future success and we are excited to partner with the Management team to accelerate their growth and vision.