Cell Based Tech Weekly – 3M Increases Food Biotech Involvement, C16 Biosciences Series A, Culture Biosciences Series A

Categories Weekly Report

Life Sciences company, 3M (NYSE: MMM), has been increasing their involvement in Agri-Food Tech market development to provide solutions for cellular agriculture and precision fermentation companies.

  • This initiative falls under a 3M principle called “15% rule” through which employees can spend 15% of their work time on experimental projects that could lead to new products.
  • I spoke with Don Davidson, who is working closely with cellular agriculture and precision fermentation companies to address a wide range of needs including:
    • Membrane filtration and purification
    • Efficient cell culture media recycling
    • Scaffolding solutions – tissue structure of the proteins
    • Food safety instrumentation
    • Packaging – novel packaging incorporating materials such as plant fibers in manufacturing processes
  • Don told me the initiative is completely customer driven with technological adaptations made to suit specific company needs.

Investments

🍞 C16 Biosciences, the company using cellular fermentation to produce palm oil has completed a $20 million Series A funding round. Investors include Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Waldencast and Future Tech Labs, Y Combinator, DCVC, Sound Ventures, AME Cloud Ventures and Liquid 2 Ventures. https://cellbased.link/ej3

  • C16 Biosciences is going after a $61 billion global industry
  • Palm oil is used in everything from soaps, shampoos and makeup to packaged foods like bread, ice cream, peanut butter and cookies
  • The capital infusion will be used to scale technology and prepare for a commercial launch starting with personal care products at the end of 2020 (this launch date was given to me by CEO Shara Ticku when we spoke last year).

🧬 Culture Biosciences completed a Series A round of $15M. The round was led by Cultivian Sandbox Ventures with additional investment from The Production Board, Verily Life Sciences, Section 32, Y Combinator, and E14 Fund. https://go.culturebiosciences.com/series-a-press-release

  • Landscape: Culture Biosciences works with precision fermentation companies to accelerate bench-scale fermentation experiments by providing a testing ground to run experiments. Their service addresses a major bottleneck for precision fermentation companies as traditional lab experiments may take 6-18 months, Culture Biosciences experiments can take less than 1 month.
  • Some of Culture Biosciences Clients:
    • Geltor
    • Clara Foods
    • C16 Biosciences
    • Modern Meadow
  • Why We Care: Culture Biosciences services are enabling the rapid expansion of the US bio based manufacturing revolution that will touch industries from food/agriculture, cosmetics, textiles, diagnostics, therapeutics and more.