Funding profile · Rare disease drug discovery

Perlara PBC

Two Form D filings, the newer one nine years old. About $10 million reported raised before the company wound down in 2019, and a restart funded by patient foundations, service revenue and one federal grant.

$10.0MReported raised from investors, 2014 to 2019, per contemporaneous reporting
$4.94MTotal sold across the two Form D filings on record
$1.71MNIH SBIR obligated, FY2025 and FY2026
0Regulation D filings since August 18, 2017

Data as of September 22, 2026. Company-reported figures are labeled.

Rounds at a glance

When Round Amount Investors Source
Apr 2014 First equity offering, as Perlstein Lab PBC $800,000 sold of $2,000,000 offered 2 Form D
Winter 2016 Y Combinator Not disclosed Y Combinator YC data
2016 Novartis research collaboration and investment Not disclosed Novartis Independent
Aug to Nov 2017 Equity round announced at $7.4 million $4,143,002 sold of $7,438,261 offered at filing 21 · Pivotal Capital Alpha, Al-Hamra Group, Radical Investments, Homebrew Ventures, Haystack Fund, Y Combinator, Novartis Form D and release
2018 Leigh syndrome program funding Not disclosed; the CEO put a typical program at $250,000 to $750,000 Radical Investments Independent
By Feb 2019 Cumulative from investors Nearly $10 million Not itemized Independent
Sep 2025 to Aug 2027 NIH SBIR Direct to Phase II, R44GM161192 $1,708,342 NIGMS Public record

What the filings show

Perlara PBC · Form D · filed Aug 18, 2017

First sale
Aug 3, 2017
Offered
$7,438,261 equity
Sold
$4,143,002 · $3,295,259 remaining
Investors
21 · average about $197,286
Exemption
Rule 506(b)
Related persons
Ethan O. Perlstein (executive officer, director, promoter); Matthew Wilsey (director); Linda Avey (director)
Filing
SEC EDGAR, CIK 0001607099

Perlstein Lab PBC · Form D · filed May 5, 2014

First sale
Apr 21, 2014
Offered
$2,000,000 equity
Sold
$800,000 · $1,200,000 remaining
Investors
2 · average $400,000
Exemption
Rule 506(b)
Related persons
Ethan O. Perlstein (executive officer, director, promoter)
Filing
SEC EDGAR, CIK 0001607099, Delaware, incorporated 2014

Reading the filings

  1. The announced round is bigger than anything on file.BioSpace reported a closed $7.4 million equity round in November 2017. The Form D filed on August 18, 2017 records $4,143,002 sold against a $7,438,261 offering, leaving $3,295,259 unsold at that date. No amendment was ever filed, so the SEC record never caught up with the press release.
  2. The checks were angel scale, not fund scale.$4,143,002 across 21 investors averages about $197,286 each. The 2014 filing is the mirror image: $800,000 from 2 investors, $400,000 apiece.
  3. Roughly half the reported money never touched a Form D.Total sold across both filings is $4,943,002. Contemporaneous reporting put the total at $9.9 million by late 2017 and nearly $10 million by 2019. Notes and Section 4(a)(2) sales file nothing, and the roughly $2 million of patient group research revenue is not capital at all.
  4. The board was the customer base.No venture partner appears as a director in 2017. Beside the founder sit Matthew Wilsey, president of the Grace Science Foundation and the father of a child with NGLY1 deficiency, and Linda Avey, a co-founder of 23andMe. That composition fits a company selling research to families rather than one selling equity to funds.
  5. Nine years of silence.Nothing has been filed under the CIK since August 18, 2017. The 2019 wind down, the 2020 restart and everything since sit outside the Regulation D record.
  6. Non-dilutive money is now the visible pot.NIGMS obligated $1,016,229 in FY2025 and $692,113 in FY2026, $1,708,342 in total, against $4,943,002 of equity ever recorded on a Form D. The grant ends August 31, 2027.

Commercial signals

Signal Detail Source type
Clinical NCT04925960, the Phase 3 of epalrestat in PMM2-CDG sponsored by joint venture Maggie’s Pearl LLC, is terminated. Reason stated: due to futility. Actual enrollment 42, completion Feb 28, 2025, no results posted. Public record
Federal $1,708,342 obligated by NIGMS across FY2025 and FY2026 to Perlara PBC, Alameda, CA. PI Ethan Perlstein. Public record
Revenue In a September 2022 interview the CEO said the rebooted company was close to breakeven and would reach about $150,000 in revenue in August, roughly half of it from managing research for families. Company-stated
Customers Foundation and family partners are named on the website and in the company notebook. No contract values are disclosed. Company-stated
Output Papers with the founder as author appear in 2019, 2022, 2024, 2025 and January 2026. The platform paper itself remains a bioRxiv preprint. Public record
Corporate SEC address of record is South San Francisco; the FY2026 NIH award lists Alameda. Named team on the website is five people. Public record

What to watch

  • Any new Form D. There has not been one in nine years.
  • Results posted for NCT04925960, and whether Maggie’s Pearl continues or dissolves.
  • The SBIR after August 31, 2027, which is the end of the current obligation.
  • Peer review for the yeast platform preprint, which is the technical basis for the current pitch.

The Perlara PBC story on Healthcare DiscoveryHealthcare Discovery

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Sources

  1. Public recordForm D, Perlara PBC, CIK 0001607099SEC · Aug 18, 2017
  2. Public recordForm D, Perlstein Lab PBC, CIK 0001607099SEC · May 5, 2014
  3. Public recordEDGAR filing index for CIK 0001607099SEC · Sep 2026
  4. Public recordNIH RePORTER, R44GM161192NIH NIGMS · FY2025 and FY2026
  5. Public recordClinicalTrials.gov NCT04925960ClinicalTrials.gov · updated Sep 25, 2025
  6. IndependentMark Cuban invests in tiny Bay Area biotech PerlaraBioSpace · Nov 2017
  7. IndependentTweet leads Mark Cuban to invest in PerlaraCNBC · Nov 14, 2018
  8. IndependentIts founder shares the key lesson from the failureBusiness Insider · Apr 25, 2019
  9. InterviewPerlstein on reviving a biotechBioPharma Dive · Sep 27, 2022
  10. IndependentBoard of Fellows, naming two Perlara directorsStanford Medicine · Sep 2026
  11. CompanyPerlara home and About pagesperlara.com · Sep 22, 2026

Compiled from SEC, NIH and ClinicalTrials.gov public records and published reports as of September 22, 2026. Form D notices report offerings under Regulation D; amounts reflect the filing date and may not capture later sales. Healthcare Venture Capital Fund holds no position in Perlara PBC. This page is not an offer to sell or a recommendation to buy any security.