Nature Communications · Apr 2026
Nature Communications paper describing a deep-learning and yeast-screening approach that independently converged on azole compounds for Leigh syndrome, consistent with Perlara’s SURF1-related work.
Perlara: building the YC for rare disease parents
Company research
Public company, workplace, funding, and market signals
Overview
Perlara is a Bay Area rare-disease biotech and Public Benefit Corporation focused on inherited metabolic diseases. It operates a yeast-first, patient-partnered drug discovery platform (REMIT) that screens repurposable compounds, validates hits in patient cells, and advances programs into IND-enabling work and clinical studies. Public funding data is inconsistent across third-party sources; the best current public estimate I found is about $17M raised, with the company also reporting a $1.7M SBIR award in 2025.
Primary product
REMIT, a yeast-first inherited-metabolic-disease drug discovery and development platform
Founded
2014
Headquarters
South San Francisco, California, United States
Team size
10-20
Work style
Remote
Industry
Biotechnology Research
Sub-industry
Rare disease drug discovery and inherited metabolic disease biotech
Offices
6000 Shoreline Ct Ste 204, South San Francisco, CA 94080, United States
Business model
patient-foundation sponsored drug discovery
biopharma research collaborations
grant-funded R&D
historical consulting / drug-repurposing services
Funding
Stage
private seed/early-stage biotech with grant-funded R&D
Total raised
$17M
Latest round
Series B equity financing · Nov 2017
Latest amount
$7.4M
People & investors
Leadership
CEO and founder
Mathuravani Thevandavakkam, Ph.D.
Director of Drug Repurposing Program
Director of Congenital Disorders of Glycosylation Program
Director of Mitochondrial Disease Program
Chief of Staff
Operations Manager
Work & culture
Mission-driven, patient-first, transparent, open-science, and highly collaborative. The company emphasizes family/foundation partnership, a decentralized/remote operating model, and sharing scientific learnings publicly through its blog and data portal.
Work style
Remote
Compensation
No public compensation bands or formal compensation policy were found.
Product & market
Pricing
Historically milestone-based, partner-funded PerlQuest engagements; currently partner-funded and grant-supported drug discovery and development programs.
Differentiators
- —first biotech Public Benefit Corporation in drug discovery
- —yeast-first and patient-partnered discovery engine
- —publicly documented science and open notebook style publishing
- —validation in patient-derived cells before clinical translation
- —full-stack path from screening to clinical studies
- —programs anchored by a specific family or disease foundation
Technology
yeast avatars (S. cerevisiae)
Yarrowia lipolytica
patient-derived fibroblasts
compound library screening
patient-cell validation
IND-enabling studies
registrational clinical trials
open data portal
Substack newsletter
Customers
rare disease patient families
patient advocacy groups
disease-specific foundations
biopharma collaborators
research partners
Scale & contact
Estimated revenue
≈$3.9M (third-party estimate; likely stale)
Estimated monthly visits
2.8K
Latest news
EIN Presswire · Nov 2025
Company announced a $1.7M Direct-to-Phase-II SBIR award to expand its mitochondrial disease platform, marking the beginning of Perlara 3.0.
Perlara’s Cure Odysseys · Jul 2025
Describes the GMPPA-CDG program, a finasteride single-patient observational study, and the company’s metabolic rebalancing approach for ultra-rare CDG diseases.
Perlara’s Cure Odysseys · Nov 2023
Reports that Cure Mito Foundation partnered with Perlara on SURF1 Leigh syndrome screening and that three compounds increased mitochondrial respiration in SURF1 patient cells.
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