Jinke Group (Hong Kong) Ltd has agreed to purchase 1,916,811 shares of common stock for a purchase price of $0.5217 per share, which will provide ChromaDex with proceeds of about $1,000,000. The transaction also gives Jinke warrants to purchase an additional 1,333,334 shares of common stock at $0.80 a share.
ChromaDex said in May that it was uncertain whether it would be possible to secure funding to continue expansion “on terms favorable to it or at all” due to the difficult economic environment. However, the company said it expects demand for its services to increase and as the trend for ‘green chemistry’ intensifies in the cosmetics and food industries.
CEO and co-founder of ChromaDex Frank Jaksch said "We are pleased that Jinke Group has shown such confidence in ChromaDex. The funds from Jinke will provide ChromaDex with additional working capital to support our business expansion plans.”
The company has said that it intends its expansion to be ‘organic’ – that is, building on its existing assets, rather than through acquisitions.
Jaksch added: “We are confident this financing will help position the company to support the next phase of growth in becoming the premier provider of phytochemical and botanical reference standards to the functional food, cosmetic, dietary supplement, pharmaceutical / life sciences and other industries."
Anthocyanin production
Earlier this autumn the company secured funding from the National Science Foundation to commercialize an anthocyanin manufacturing process that it licensed from the University of Buffalo.
According to the company, anthocyanins, which have strong antioxidant properties as well as being used as natural pigments to color food, will become one of the next ‘super’ classes of phytochemical compounds.
Primarily they have strong antioxidant potential that could lead to anti-aging, anti-inflammatory and even anti cancer applications and the company also notes weight loss and fat burning properties. However, getting the pure extract from natural biomass is complicated and expensive, it claims.
Chromadex said the fermentation procedure it wants to commercialise is a more cost effective production method and could produce isolated compounds rather than combinations of the compounds extracted from the plant.
