Participated · Equity · Feb 2025

uFraction8 develops microfluidics-based filtration systems that use hydrodynamic phenomena to provide a new mechanism of filtration for perfusion processes. Its technology is aimed at helping bio-manufacturers increase productivity with energy-efficient and scalable perfusion systems. The company targets industrial processes that use cell cultures to produce food, biopharmaceuticals and other bio-based products and chemicals. The technology was originally developed at the University of Edinburgh’s School of Engineering. uFraction8 is co-founded by Dr Brian Miller and Dr Monika Tomecka and currently employs seven people across Scotland and Poznan, Poland. The company intends to use recent funding to further commercialise its technology.

Participated · Series A · May 2024

Allozymes operates a microfluidics-based platform that screens millions of enzyme variants per day to identify and optimize enzymes for industrial and chemical applications. The company has grown to 32 employees across the U.S., Europe and Singapore and expanded its lab footprint roughly fifteenfold since 2021. Its current throughput reaches up to 20 million enzyme variants screened per day and it is targeting screening 7 billion variants in 2024. Allozymes sells enzyme-optimization services (branded SingZyme) and is developing a broader discovery offering called MultiZyme to design multi-enzyme solutions. The firm is building a proprietary dataset from these experiments and is developing machine-learning models trained on that data to propose new molecules and enzyme candidates. Case studies include bio-identical production routes for phytoene and bisabolol and a grant-backed project to convert plant fibers into soluble sweet fiber. Management says the company is well capitalized after the Series A and may raise a smaller round later this year to expand into pharmaceuticals and open a U.S. office. Allozymes has developed a benchtop microfluidic system that runs reactions in tiny droplets to accelerate enzyme screening, claiming throughput of up to ten million variants per day and greatly reduced costs versus traditional methods. The company sells enzyme engineering as a service rather than the device, tailoring projects from variant optimization to full replacement of chemical processes for industrial customers. Founders Peyman Salehian (CEO) and Akbar Vahidi (CTO) developed the technology during three years of research at the National University of Singapore, which holds the patent and exclusively licenses it to Allozymes. The team positions the platform against players like Codexis, Arzeda, and Ginkgo Bioworks by emphasizing much higher speed and lower cost per R&D dollar. Allozymes also plans to monetize the data generated from large-scale screens and may occasionally take part ownership of resulting IP or products. The company raised a $5 million seed round to commercialize the platform and scale customer projects.

Participated · Series B · Jan 2024

Founded in 2021, Protealis is a European ag-tech company focused on breeding early-maturing, high-protein soybean varieties and delivering complementary seed-technologies. Its flagship product, MagNfix™, is a factory-applied soybean seed coating that contains a locally adapted Bradyrhizobium strain able to remain biologically active in temperate Western European conditions. Multi-year field trials show the coating consistently raises yield and protein content compared with existing inoculants, helping farmers overcome Europe’s lack of native nitrogen-fixing bacteria. The company positions its solution as a way to reduce Europe’s dependence on more than 34 million tonnes of imported soy each year. With rising demand for locally grown, non-GMO protein, Protealis aims to commercialise MagNfix™ at scale while continuing to expand its portfolio of soybean genetics. The new VLAIO funding enables team growth and industrial readiness, accelerating market entry. No revenue or user figures were disclosed, but the firm highlights Europe’s 3 million-tonne soybean production in 2024 as its immediate addressable market.

Participated · Seed · Dec 2023

Clever Carnivore is a Chicago biotech startup developing low-cost, top-quality cultivated meat, currently producing cultivated pork sausage and planning a prototype Clever Bratwurst in early 2024. The company uses cell biology, recombinant protein technology and advanced bioreactor design to create sausages, burgers and chicken nuggets that compete on taste, price and convenience. R&D is led by co-founder Paul Burridge, Ph.D., and the team has optimized growth media to reduce cell culture media costs by one to two orders of magnitude versus other cultivated meat companies. Clever Carnivore emphasizes animal component-free media and superior cell growth performance to iterate production and formulation rapidly. The company is mission-driven to deliver cruelty-free, sustainable and cost-competitive meat alternatives to consumers. The business recently closed a $7M seed round that was oversubscribed and will fund expansion and scale-up efforts.

Led · Series A · Oct 2023

Pow.bio combines continuous-fermentation hardware with AI-controlled software called SOFe to accelerate process optimization and autonomous operation for synthetic-biology manufacturers. The company says its system enables a steady pace of inputs and outputs that is roughly 5x faster while requiring a fraction of traditional capital expenses. Pow.bio positions itself as a rapid-prototyping partner that can shorten development cycles to two or three months versus multi-month, costly iterations. It is already working with multiple clients, bringing in revenue and reporting at least 50% year-over-year growth in demand. The startup will deploy most of its new funding to build a demonstration facility in Alameda, California to move from gram-scale experimentation to production of hundreds of kilograms of finished products. The Alameda demo, slated to open summer 2024, is intended to serve 20–50 partners and be a blueprint for scaling to multiple locations. Pow.bio was founded in 2019 by Ouwei Wang and Shannon Hall. Pow.bio develops a process-based continuous fermentation platform that separates growth and production phases to keep microbes in an ultra-productive, non-growing state for extended runs. The company operates a 30-liter facility and is scaling to 300 liters while projecting roughly eightfold higher productivity at commercial scale using 50 cubic meter reactors for certain ingredients. Pow.bio positions itself as a ‘fermentation as a service’ provider, helping customers validate strains, optimize processes, and produce materials for regulatory and go-to-market testing. It reports it is already generating revenue and is working with about 30 clients but currently lacks capacity to meet inbound demand. The team holds contamination-control IP licensed from UC Berkeley and a growing patent family covering its process innovations and optimization technologies. Future plans include expanding capabilities, moving to a larger facility, pursuing joint ventures and licensing deals, and building larger manufacturing capacity with partners.