Bio food tech startup TurtleTree has entered a new strategic partnership with industrial biomanufacturing specialist Solar Biotech. The deal is an important step in TurtleTree’s scale-up process for the manufacture of its cell-based milk ingredients.
Solar Biotech, led by industrial biotech expert Alex Berlin, brings bioproducts from benchtop to industrial bioprocessing commercial scale using proprietary technology and solar energy. This is a key move for TurtleTree as one of the biggest challenges for food tech companies is developing the technologies required to scale up bio-manufacturing processes.
Based in Singapore and the US, TurtleTree recognizes that a key factor in reaching price parity with traditional food production methods is the availability of technologically advanced large-scale food-grade bioprocessing facilities. Backed by Green Monday Ventures and Prince Khaled’s KBW Ventures amongst others, TurtleTree is moving its ‘clean milk’ products ever closer to market.
Other companies in the cell-based field are also scaling up production, such as cell-cultured salmon startup Wildtype with the opening of its new pilot plant in San Francisco.
Cell-cultured at scale is on the horizon
The Solar Biotech partnership is not the first for TurtleTree recently, as it recently announced a partnership with Dyadic International, a global biotechnology company working towards accelerating development and lowering production costs in the sector.
“TurtleTree’s decision to back Alex Berlin and Solar Biotech’s team from the early days has started to pay dividends. Our teams can focus on lab-scale R&D and go-to-market as we look to play a major role in the sustainable food supply chain, while Solar Biotech delivers the bioprocessing technologies required for production at scale” commented Max Rye, Co-Founder and Chief Strategist of TurtleTree.
