Debut Biotech Raises $22.6M Series A to Commercialize High-Value Ingredients from Proprietary Cell-Free Biomanufacturing Platform
Novel ingredients bring unique advantages to cosmetic, food, and health and wellness markets in one of the largest Series A financing rounds in synthetic biology space
SAN DIEGO, Aug. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Debut Biotech, a next generation biomanufacturing platform harnessing cell-free enzymes, today announced its $22.6M Series A financing, led by Material Impact. Participating investors include Cultivian Sandbox Ventures, Fine Structure Ventures, ACVC Ventures, Humboldt Fund, Cantos Ventures, as well as existing investors including KdT Ventures.
Debut Biotech will use the funds to commercialize ingredients developed from its proprietary cell-free biomanufacturing platform, which has applications across various industries from food and wellness products to cosmetics, colors, therapeutics and other industrial applications. In order to scale the commercialization of its technology and expand into new products, Debut Biotech will expand its footprint to a 26,000 square foot facility in San Diego and triple the size of its team across locations in San Diego and Atlanta. These facility investments will enable Debut Biotech's manufacturing to be done entirely in the United States.
By overcoming the limitations of cell-based fermentation, Debut Biotech produces high-value ingredients rapidly and more sustainably. Low-value and sustainable feedstocks can be used as inputs in place of petrochemicals, while reactions can be generated in a fraction of the time. These breakthroughs result in a more sustainable and cost-effective approach to manufacturing ingredients, including those inaccessible in nature.
"We're thrilled to be leading this investment in Debut Biotech," said Corinna Chen, Partner at Material Impact. "Biology is the greatest opportunity of our lifetime. At Material Impact, we believe that a majority of high-value ingredients in new products will be biomanufactured in the near future and beyond. It's clear to us that Debut Biotech is the company that is leading the way. By leveraging enzymes in a continuous cell-free system, they have created an entirely new methodology for developing novel and more sustainable products that are ubiquitous in our lives."
Debut Biotech's proprietary biomanufacturing platform utilizes cell-free and other advanced approaches such as continuous biomanufacturing to overcome the limitations of traditional methods, dramatically reducing the need for space, water, and expensive and unsustainable inputs.
"Creating sustainable and effective methods for manufacturing is paramount to the future of commercial and industrial products, and in turn the health of people and the planet" said Dan Phillips, Managing Director of Cultivian Sandbox Ventures, and board member of Debut Biotech. "While traditional manufacturing inches forward incrementally, Debut Biotech has achieved a step change leap in speed and cost of production, delivering the needed advances to realize outsize impact."
In addition to producing rare, high-value and novel compounds, Debut Biotech's technology also improves traditional ingredient manufacturing. The company recently announced a joint venture with fine chemical manufacturer DIC to leverage advanced biomanufacturing approaches to produce natural color ingredients to be used across DIC's portfolio of products.
"As one of the largest Series A fundraises in the synthetic biology space, this investment is a testament to the hard work of the team at Debut Biotech," said Debut Biotech CEO, Joshua Britton. "We've built a cell-free platform that has the power to unlock the full potential of biomanufacturing at the highest level across all metrics -- including speed, cost and scale. Now that we've proven the myriad applications for this technology, we're developing net-new ingredients that will unlock entirely new product categories and markets."
This announcement comes shortly after Debut Biotech secured several strategic partnerships to co-develop products across a range of industries. In addition to the latest venture with DIC, Debut Biotech has partnered with Battelle to sustainably transform plastic waste into lubricants. They've also entered into a partnership with DSM to produce a range of high-value chemicals across a wide range of industries and applications.
To learn more about Debut Biotech, and their cell-free approach to biomanufacturing, visit http://www.debutbiotech.com.
About Debut Biotech
Debut Biotech is dedicated to unlocking natural products through sustainable biomanufacturing. Their unique biomanufacturing platform harnesses natural cell-free enzymes to overcome the limitations of cell-based manufacturing and provides access to previously unobtainable products. Debut Biotech truly believes that biomanufacturing will be how materials and ingredients are created in the future and is committed to leading the revolution.
About Material Impact
Material Impact is a venture capital fund that invests in building companies which transform material technologies into products that make an impact on real world problems. Material Impact is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. For more information, please visit http://www.materialimpact.com.
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SOURCE Debut Biotech
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