Marine ingredient startup, Yemoja, Ltd., has created a next-gen platform for cultivating customized, microalgae on demand. Co-founder Amikam Bar-Gil says, “Microalgae are sunlight-driven, single-celled factories, and by nature highly resilient and versatile. They also are a powerful source of natural, vegan, bioactive ingredients.”
The Israeli startup is currently moving into Round B funding, having already raised US$4 million in seed funds and investments from the Israel Innovation Authority. Yemoja says it can produce algae-centered ingredients standardized to any bioactive compound or algae extract and that its microalgae can be tailored to desired nutritional compounds and functionalities.
“There is a vast ocean of microalgae species not yet discovered, and only a dozen or so are commercially available,” notes Eyal Shalmon, CEO of Yemoja. “The market is still in the early stages of tapping into the immense potential of these marine ‘supercrops’.
Yemoja’s super-intensive cultivation methodology overcomes many of the industry’s hurdles, specifically compositional homogeneity, scalability, and contamination proofing, and ensures clean, safe microalgae throughout the process.
“Yemoja’s patented technology evolved from a deep-rooted appreciation of biopharma and marine sciences, supported by extensive experience in algae cultivation,” says Erez Ashkenazi, COO and Co-Founder of Yemoja. “This unprecedented capacity was collectively harnessed to produce a variety of pure algae at any scale, and in a short time — something the microalgae market has not witnessed until now.”
