Funding profile · Anti-infectives

Matrubials

A preclinical antimicrobial peptide company whose largest documented check is a federal grant. No Form D has ever been filed. The company’s own figures and the commercial databases disagree by an order of magnitude.

$287KNIH NIAID SBIR Phase I, the largest single documented award
$1.28MPreclinical spend 2021 to 2025, company-stated
$130KTotal funding per two commercial databases
$0Regulation D offerings filed with the SEC

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

Rounds at a glance

When Round Amount Investors Source
Summer 2021 Y Combinator S21 $125,000 Y Combinator Database
Sep 2021 Seed round opened $1.5M target, about a third closed by Nov 2021 Not disclosed Independent
Mar 2022 Seed round logged Not disclosed Not disclosed Database
May 10, 2022 NIH NIAID SBIR Phase I $286,968 NIAID Public record
By Aug 2022 Seed, still open About $1.1M raised, $900,000 still sought Not disclosed Independent
Nov 19, 2025 NorCal AngelCon, audience choice award Event audience award set at $10,000 Carlsen Center, Sacramento State Independent
Dec 2025 Pitch competition prize $50,000 Competition not named in the report Independent
Cumulative Named holders Not disclosed Gaingels, Globivest, Growth Factory Ventures, National Institutes of Health, State of California; 12 investors listed in total Database
2026 Raise sought $1.5M None named Company deck

What the filings show

Matrubials, Inc. · SEC EDGAR · no Form D found, checked Sep 22, 2026

Form D filings
None under the company name
Mentions
No third party Form D names the company, so no investment vehicle formed around it is on record
What that rules out
Nothing. An issuer selling under Section 4(a)(2) rather than Regulation D files no Form D at all
Effect
Every equity figure on this page is reported, not filed

Matrubials, Inc. · NIH NIAID SBIR Phase I · awarded May 10, 2022

Project
1R43AI165105-01A1
Amount
$286,968
Period
May 10, 2022 to March 31, 2024
Institute
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
Principal investigator
Ishita M. Shah
Follow on
No Phase II award in the record as of Sep 22, 2026

Reading the filings

  1. The biggest check came from the government.$286,968 from NIAID is about 2.2 times the $130,000 total that two commercial databases report for the whole company, and more than twice the $125,000 Y Combinator standard check. Non-dilutive money is the majority of what can be verified.
  2. The seed target moved, or the reporting did.In November 2021 the round was described as $1.5 million with about a third closed, roughly $500,000. By August 2022 the company said about $1.1 million was in and $900,000 more was needed. Add those and the target is $2.0 million, not $1.5 million. No filing exists to settle which number was live.
  3. Three years moved very little money.The company’s February 2026 deck puts total preclinical spend at $1.28 million for 2021 to 2025. The August 2022 figure was about $1.1 million. That leaves roughly $180,000 of new capital across the next three and a half years, which is consistent with a company living on grant money and prizes.
  4. Prize money is a real line item at this size.The November 2025 audience award was set at $10,000 and a December 2025 competition paid $50,000. Together that is about $60,000, or 21 percent of the NIH grant, earned in three weeks.
  5. The 2026 ask is the 2021 ask.The deck seeks $1.5 million to carry two lead candidates to an IND. That is the same headline number reported for the seed round opened in 2021. Five years of work has not raised the size of the next round.
  6. The databases disagree with the company, and each other.One lists total funding of $125,000 across two rounds, another $130,000, a third logs nine events including six accelerator entries with no amounts attached and a $50,000 grant in December 2025. None of them reflect the $1.28 million the company reports spending.

Commercial signals

Signal Detail Source type
Regulatory No IND, no registered clinical trial. A pre-IND meeting with the FDA was reported in November 2025 and cannot be checked against a public record. Company-stated
Revenue A federal contractor database lists revenue under $500,000 and no venture backing. No product is on the market. Database
Consumer path A skin serum was reported in December 2025 for early 2026 release. It needs no FDA approval and is the first product intended to generate revenue. Independent
Intellectual property US20250340592A1 published November 6, 2025, pending, plus a November 2023 filing covering cosmeceutical use. Public record
Validation Two peer-reviewed papers in Pharmaceutics in 2026, one of them from CONRAD at Eastern Virginia Medical School, a laboratory with no stake in the company. Public record
Headcount Four to six people, depending on the source. Database

What to watch

  • A first Form D. It would be due within 15 days of a first sale under Regulation D and would be the first filed number this company has ever produced.
  • A Phase II SBIR. Phase I ended March 31, 2024 and nothing has followed.
  • Whether the skin serum ships and books revenue, which would change the funding math.
  • Any named institutional lead. The databases list holders but no lead investor and no round sizes.
  • An IND submission, the milestone the 2026 raise is meant to buy.

The Matrubials story on Healthcare DiscoveryHealthcare Discovery

Related companies

  • Parallel Bio: Shared investor: Gaingels. Miniature human lymph nodes, grown from donated tissue and run side by side across hundreds of donors, used to test drugs and vaccines before anyone takes them
  • Convexia: Shared investor: Gaingels. A two person, Y Combinator backed startup that wants AI agents to do the job of a pharma business development team: find overlooked drugs, judge them, and eventually
  • Alixia: Shared investor: Gaingels. A San Francisco drug discovery company that treats a tumor as an ecosystem rather than as a single mutation
  • Shiru: Shared investor: Gaingels. An AI company that mines natural proteins for food functions, then sells the ones that work

Sources

  1. Public recordNIH RePORTER 1R43AI165105-01A1NIAID · FY2022
  2. Public recordSEC EDGAR Form D search, no results for MatrubialsSEC · checked Sep 22, 2026
  3. Public recordUS20250340592A1, Mammalian milk-derived peptides with antimicrobial activityUSPTO · published Nov 6, 2025
  4. IndependentStartup aims to turn a mother’s milk into medicineSacramento Business Journal · Nov 2021
  5. IndependentStartup of the Month: MatrubialsComstock’s magazine · Aug 5, 2022
  6. IndependentMatrubials CEO Ishita Shah Shares Her Startup StoryStartupSac · Feb 28, 2022
  7. IndependentNorCal AngelCon 2025 FinalistStartup Folsom · Nov 3, 2025
  8. IndependentDavis health research company Matrubials wins $50K prizeSacramento Business Journal · Dec 11, 2025
  9. DatabaseMatrubials company profiles: funding, investors, patents, headcountPitchBook, CB Insights, Tracxn, inknowvation · accessed Sep 22, 2026
  10. CompanyAntimicrobial Peptides for Treatment and Prevention of BV and other STIs, deckIshita M. Shah via The IMPT · Feb 20, 2026
  11. CompanyMatrubials website, updates pageAccessed Sep 22, 2026

Compiled from SEC, NIH, USPTO and other public records and published reports as of September 22, 2026. Form D notices report offerings under Regulation D; no such notice exists for this company, and an issuer relying on Section 4(a)(2) files none. Healthcare Venture Capital Fund holds no position in Matrubials. This page is not an offer to sell or a recommendation to buy any security.