SynBio (synthetic biology) company Solar Biotech has received an undisclosed sum of capital from leading ingredient solutions provider Ingredion. The company intends to use the funding to expand its facility in Norton, Virginia.
The new, larger facility will allow Solar Biotech to increase its bioprocessing capabilities in order to manufacture products for several market segments. The company has already introduced several major new products to the foodtech segment.
“We see in Ingredion an ideal strategic partner”
Solar Biotech has the mission of using advanced bioprocessing techniques such as precision fermentation to transform the way consumer products are manufactured. To achieve this, the company uses proprietary technologies powered by solar energy.
Solar Biotech partnerships
In January, Solar Biotech announced it would be expanding its partnership with foodtech company Motif Foodworks, which initially partnered with Solar Biotech to increase the production capacity of its heme-like binding protein HEMAMI. Through the extended partnership, Solar Biotech is supporting Motif with its sampling needs for new food technologies.
Last year, Solar Biotech also partnered with Singapore’s TurtleTree Labs to help the latter company scale up the production of its cell-based milk. Solar Biotech’s new funding from Ingredion will help to make more partnerships possible.
“This investment by Ingredion represents a validation of Solar Biotech’s growing stature and product development reputation in the SynBio industry,” said Alex Berlin, Ph.D., Founder, CEO & CTO of Solar Biotech, Inc. “We see in Ingredion an ideal strategic partner, completely aligned with our technology, sustainability, and social development targets, and a company with whom we will synergize well together to accelerate further our technology development and fast track the commercialisation of our own SynBio proprietary products and those of our partners and customers.”
