While firms such as DSM have proven there's money to be made from high-value algae ingredients such as omega-3s, the field is littered with the corpses of startups that have tried—and failed—to make a buck out of algae biofuels and bulk proteins. So what makes Algenie—an Australian startup now emerging from stealth—think it can crack the code?
It's early days, but novel thin layer photobioreactors enabling dramatic improvements in efficiency and scalability could change the game, claims cofounder and CEO Nick Hazell, a former PepsiCo and Mars R&D exec who went on to found Sydney-based alt meat business v2food in 2019.
"At v2, we were excited about using algal protein pigments in plant-based meat and then quickly realized that the economics of growing algae were terrible," says Hazell, who has just secured AUD1.1 million ($0.7 million) from the University of Technology Sydney, Better Bite Ventures, and other investors.
"So it was a case of what do we do?" he tells AgFunderNews. "Do we back away or get into the fundamentals of the physics of growing algae so we can make something that would cost a few cents per kilo of [alt] meat? And we succeeded."
Read the full article on AgFunderNews.