Liberation Labs has officially changed its name to Liberation Bioindustries to better reflect its role as a global contract biomanufacturer operating at commercial scale. The company is preparing to bring its first purpose-built precision fermentation facility online in Richmond, Indiana, in early 2026. A second site in Saudi Arabia is currently in the feasibility assessment phase.
“The ‘Labs’ part of Liberation Labs felt unnecessarily limiting”
Mark Warner, founder and CEO, explained the rationale behind the name change: “As we move from concept to completion, the ‘Labs’ part of Liberation Labs felt unnecessarily limiting, if not outright confusing. After all, the world is full of amazing biotechnologies that are at lab scale – we’re building the next generation of industrial biomanufacturing facilities to bring those products to market.”
Commercial-scale biomanufacturing capacity
Liberation Bioindustries is constructing a commercial facility with a fermentation capacity of 600,000 liters and a dedicated downstream processing line. The plant will manufacture a variety of bio-based materials, including building block ingredients for food, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, and other industrial applications. The scale and cost structure of the plant is designed to meet demand from both established consumer packaged goods companies and emerging industrial manufacturers.
Targeting diverse industry demands
The company describes its operations as combining modern biotechnology with specialized manufacturing design to provide reliable, cost-effective biomanufacturing services on a global scale. The Richmond facility will be the company’s flagship site when it becomes operational next year.
In recent developments, Liberation Bioindustries secured an agreement to produce commercial-scale volumes of Vivitein™ BLG, a dairy protein for Dutch startup Vivici. The company also entered a strategic partnership with Topian, a food company operating under Saudi Arabia’s NEOM project, to design and develop an advanced precision fermentation facility. Planning for the Saudi Arabia site is expected to begin in the latter half of 2025.
The company made the announcement at the Future Food-Tech conference in Chicago, where it also served as a sponsor and participant.
