Precision fermentation startups have few characteristics when it comes to tactics to expand their technology. New softening service provider Boston Bioworks aims to address this bottleneck.
In the food protein industry, sustainability, climate replacement and animal welfare are a growing fear for many consumers, leading to a growing interest in select proteins. This broad term encompasses a variety of technologies aimed at providing sustainability to meat production, such as meat, fermentation and cultured meat.
To meet the growing demand, gigantic investments are being made in strains of microbes from artificial biology players to produce food ingredients in a procedure called precision fermentation. A prime example of this is Ginkgo Bioworks, which was valued at $15 billion when it went public in 2021.
“When animals are removed from the chain of origin, one of the tactics for producing those ingredients to update existing animal ingredients is fermentation,” said Michael Tai, co-founder and CEO of U. S. startup Boston Bioworks.
However, there is less attention and investment devoted to helping artificial biology startups develop their production. This means there are few features that help them take their process from the lab scale to the point where they can enter ad production with a contract production organization (CMO). ). This is a common challenge Tai faced while working as a bioprocedure manager at the Motif FoodWorks corporate plant, and what led him to launch Boston Bioworks this year.
“I had noticed some of the upheavals facing our own portfolio companies — suffering to locate the right talent, expertise and team,” said Boston Bioworks Chief Financial Officer Ted Netland, who is also an advisor to protein-focused venture capital company Lever. VC. ” That’s what led us to realize that there was an opportunity there. “
To trump the scalability bottleneck, Boston Bioworks offers procedural progression to consumers by expanding food products, such as meat and milk proteins, fat and flavors. your team.
Biotech corporations approaching precision fermentation generation will first have to source a microbial strain capable of generating their target food ingredient. In the early stages, the generation can regularly carry out fermentation in a volume equivalent to one cup of coffee.
Tai explained that many early-stage precision fermentation companies “have a process they can play with, but price parity is not there. They have to spend a thousand dollars or more per kilogram to make this product, while the asking price is one hundred dollars consistent per kilogram.
To make the product economically competitive with traditional food sources, the startup wants to see how to carry out precision fermentation in pilot volumes and then advertising. This comes to the hiring of a CMO. However, the generation movement procedure with a CMO is a complicated and error-prone task. Boston Bioworks aims to make the procedure as transparent as possible.
“You don’t want to use us to link us to a CMO, however, we offer this service to optimize it for our customers,” Tai said. , then it happens to us, and then it happens to a CMO. “
Currently, Boston Bioworks operates at partner sites, such as universities, and uses its existing equipment to keep installation costs down. Meanwhile, the company is developing its own technology knowledge and expertise platform to drive the onboarding process with other customers.
“We don’t have to buy this device ourselves,” Netland said. “This allows us to start operations without eliminating some of the initial outlets. We don’t have to pay brokerage fees, for example, and we don’t have to pay any rent upfront.
Once the company has built a strong visitor base at your spouse’s facility, Boston Bioworks aims to build its own facility to increase profitability. However, the company’s plan to slowly build momentum with up to two consumers is already being challenged for its services.
“Because of market demand, we just hired our fifth client,” said Mert Sahin, chief advertising officer for Boston Bioworks. “We continue to generate interest in outbound marketing. It’s an amazing thing we’re going through right now. “
In the long term, Boston Bioworks plans to produce its own proprietary ingredients and would possibly even diversify into other verticals, such as fragrances and flavors, cosmetics, and renewable chemicals.
There are several other features for startups to expand their fermentation technology. One example is educational establishments with pilot facilities. Another is Culture Biosciences, which raised $80 million in a Series B circular in 2021 to fund the progression of its bioprocess progression business. And some contracts Research and Development Organizations (CDMOs) and CMOs are beginning to offer their support to expand fermentation processes.
According to Tai, the offerings of giant CMOs in this area are limited and inflexible. “They apply procedure progression with their existing unit operations because they don’t need to expand a procedure that doesn’t involve their existing unit operations,” he said.
According to proponents of fermentation technology, the technique provides a more sustainable way to produce nutritional proteins than traditional animal husbandry. It also emits less carbon dioxide and requires less land. , precision fermentation may one day introduce the mainstream nutritional protein market.
“Our good fortune and the good fortune of the fermentation area are all linked,” Netland said. “So we need that to happen. “
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