Precision fermentation company Cauldron Ferm announces it has secured AUD 9.5 million ($6.25M) in a series A round led by Horizons Ventures. SOSV, In-Q-Tel, and previous investor Main Sequence also participated in the round, bringing Cauldron’s total raised funds to $20 million.
Precision fermentation is crucial for increasing food production without expanding agricultural land while it addresses sustainability and security issues. The United Nations predicts a 70% increase in food production by 2025 to support the rising population.
Cauldron says that it aims to deploy its cost-effective, continuous fermentation technology in a network of worldwide rural facilities to develop biobased products and contribute to meeting the growing global food, cosmetics, and materials demand.
Chis Liu of Horizons Ventures, comments: “Precision fermentation is an amazing technology, because it enables bio based production of a wide range of products with diverse applications.”
Continuous fermentation tech
Built on over 35 years of R&D, Cauldron has developed a proprietary growth medium formulation and a novel bioreactor design (smaller and cheaper) that, combined, allows the fermentation process to run continuously instead of following a standard batch process.
According to the company, this continuous or hyper-fermentation method improves the economics of large-scale fermentation production five times compared to the current industry standard with less capex investment. The technology promises to reach price parity with current commodities to make bio-based alternatives from food, cosmetics, materials, and fuel.
Po Bronson, managing director at SOSV GP & IndieBio, states: “Michele and Cauldron’s history of succeeding at long-run fermentation is unparalleled. The benefits of the technology—the ability to continuously produce, up to 50% lower net unit costs, and 20% more output with 45% less capex—dismantle a major obstacle for the industry and position the company as a critical manufacturing partner for companies building a more sustainable future.”
Immense production opportunities
Headquartered in Orange, New South Wales, Cauldron operates an existing 25,000 L facility. Recently, Australias’ Office of the Gene Technology Regulator (OGTR) determined that Cauldron’s hyper-fermentation process is safe for the environment, staff, and community, giving the company a license to operate its technology using Pichia Pastoris yeast at 10,000 L scale.
With the recently raised funds, the Australian biotech plans to expand its customer base, demonstrate the effectiveness of its continuous fermentation technology, and finalize plans and secure partners for a 500,000 L facility.
Michele Stansfield, co-founder and CEO of Cauldron, shares, “From biofuels and agriculture to cosmetics and chemicals, the opportunities are immense, and with the support of our incredible investors, we’re poised to capitalise on them.”
