Lumen Bioscience Expands Board and Leadership Team to Advance Clinical Pipeline of Novel Oral Biologics

Expansion follows summer 2025 $30 million equity round led by WestRiver Group

SEATTLE, Oct. 8, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Lumen Bioscience—a clinical-stage biotech developing orally delivered biologics—today announced key leadership enhancements.

Jeff Raikes has joined the company's board as an independent director, bringing a distinguished background that combines technology innovation and large-scale business operations. At Microsoft, Raikes helped build some of the world's most influential software platforms, and at Costco, he gained firsthand experience in global distribution and operational excellence. His expertise in scaling organizations and expanding product reach will be instrumental as Lumen advances its portfolio toward commercial launch.

Additional leadership updates include the promotion of Nhi Khuong, PhD, to Executive Vice President and Kole Krieger to Senior Vice President, and the appointment of David Saunders, MD, MPH, who joins Lumen's clinical development team after retiring as a Colonel and clinical trialist in the U.S. Army. In addition, board director Erik Anderson has been elected Vice Chairman, where he will work closely with board co-chairs and co-founders Brian Finrow and Jim Roberts. Since 2023, Lumen's team has grown nearly 39%, averaging more than 15% annual growth, and inaugurated a second dedicated GMP facility to keep pace with rising demand for clinical trial drug supplies.

These enhancements to Lumen's leadership team accompany this summer's completion of an oversubscribed $30 million Series C financing extension led by WestRiver Group with significant participation from the Gates Foundation and existing investors. The consortium of new participating investors includes visionary company builders, including Matt Horner, Executive Vice President of Global Enterprise at World Wide Technology, Jim Kavanaugh, Chief Executive Officer of World Wide Technology, Adebayo Ogunlesi, Five Raynham LLC, Jeff Raikes, former President of Microsoft Business Division and former Chief Executive Officer of the Gates Foundation, David Siegel, Co-Founder and Co-Chairman of Two Sigma, and Jerry Yang, Founder of Yahoo.

The fresh funding supports acceleration of Lumen's late-stage clinical programs and commercial readiness activities. The leadership enhancements follow the recently announced success of investigational LMN-201 for recurrent C. difficile infection in the Phase 2 segment of the RePreve Clinical Trial.

Brian Finrow, CEO of Lumen Bioscience, said:

"This milestone affirms the transformative power of spirulina-based GMP manufacturing. As our clinical programs continue to mature, we are thinking more and more about commercialization and distribution. The new investors joining us through WestRiver Group have built some of the world's most impactful organizations in the past 40 years. We're excited to be able to draw on their knowledge and expertise as we work to build Lumen into an enterprise with similar impact."

Erik Anderson, Founder and CEO of WestRiver Group and CEO of Singularity University, said:

"We are committed to investing in groundbreaking innovations including those paving the way for a revolutionary era in drug delivery. Lumen's visionary approach to engineering biologics for oral GI delivery is not just a leap forward, it's a promise to democratize access to world-class therapeutics and dramatically lower costs. This provides billions around the globe with the promise of easy access to revolutionary and effective treatments. Together, we are redefining treatment paradigms and are igniting a movement that transforms lives and elevates patient outcomes for everyone."

About Lumen Bioscience
Seattle-based Lumen Bioscience, Inc. has developed a new spirulina-based drug discovery, manufacturing, and delivery platform for highly prevalent diseases and disorders that have been difficult to address with conventional biopharmaceutical tools. Lumen's unique platform offers the potential to transform the biologics industry through increased speed, straightforward assembly of cocktail therapeutics, mass-market scale, and exponentially lower costs than legacy approaches. Lumen is advancing investigational oral biologic drugs and dietary supplements designed to act locally in the gut, with a pipeline targeting weight loss, C. difficile infection, inflammatory bowel disease, kidney stone disease, traveler's diarrhea, and other high prevalence conditions. www.Lumen.bio

About WestRiver Group
WestRiver Group is a thematically–driven investment platform that manages funds and builds companies in the global innovation economy. Backed by some of the world's most impactful investors, WestRiver Group directs capital toward purpose–driven companies leveraging innovation to improve society. Based in Seattle, it supports groundbreaking technologies across bio sciences, sustainability and digital transformation. www.wrg.vc

SOURCE Lumen Bioscience