ScaleUp Bio Announces Initial Customers from USA, Australia and Asia, Supporting Global Food Innovations

• New customers underscore significant interest in ScaleUp Bio’s unique CDMO value proposition to the global food tech industry
• Also nearing completion on Singapore’s first, dedicated food-grade precision fermentation facilities: now in pre-operational testing phase

Singapore, (31 October 2023) – ScaleUp Bio, a pioneering, Singapore-based, CDMO provider of submerged microbial precision fermentation facilities, expertise and services, today announced an initial list of customers, underscoring strong global interest in the company’s unique value proposition:

• Collaboration agreement with Australia’s Nourish Ingredients, to support its Asian growth strategy
• Signed letters of Intent with USA’s C16 Biosciences, Malaysia-based Ultimeat, and Singapore’s own Allium Bio to explore development of sustainable ingredients for the Asian marketplace

Nourish Ingredients, C16 Biosciences, Ultimeat, and Allium Bio – amongst other prospective customers – each leverage submerged microbial and precision fermentation to develop sustainably produced ingredients for novel foods. ScaleUp Bio is playing a vital role in providing these innovators in the food tech space with a bench-to-market pipeline, aiding them in scaling up to pilot-scale commercial production, breaking into Asian markets and beyond.

“We are truly excited to announce our first group of customer partners who are joining us in building the future of food through microbial precision fermentation,” said Francisco Codoñer, CEO, ScaleUp Bio. “These companies recognise the significant growth opportunities for novel foods across Asia and understand the truly unique advantages ScaleUp Bio offers, enabling them to achieve their strategic business objectives and together, empowering the next food revolution.”

ScaleUp Bio was established in the third quarter of 2022 as a joint venture company of global nutrition leader ADM and Nurasa, a wholly owned company of Singapore’s global investment giant, Temasek. Charged to fulfil critical scaling-up gaps faced by global food tech innovators, ScaleUp Bio delivers a unique mix of facilities, expertise, experience, and essential services through a clear, Contract Development Manufacturing Organization (CDMO), fee-for-service business model. Both aspiring start-ups and established companies seeking to develop novel food innovations from bench to market, can avail of ScaleUp Bio’s offerings.

Collaboration agreement with Australia’s Nourish Ingredients

ScaleUp Bio is collaborating with its first customer partner, Australia’s Nourish Ingredients, to bring sustainable fermentation-based speciality fats to an Asian audience. ScaleUp Bio is uniquely positioned via its specialised expertise to deliver assistance, insights, and regulatory advice for companies to succeed in Asia.

Nourish Ingredients was founded in Australia in 2019 to create animalic fats that make plant proteins delicious. With a rise in consumer interest and market take-up for plant-based proteins, most manufacturers relied on palm and coconut oils to provide fats, which fail to deliver the animalic taste consumers want.

Nourish Ingredients has chosen Singapore as a strategic Asia Pacific hub for scaling production of its animal-free breakthrough fats, designed to provide global food and ingredient makers an ingredient that cooks, smells and tastes just like traditional meat for consumers. The company’s partnership with ScaleUp Bio will support 10,000 litres of fermentation capacity as well as 100 litres of thermal processing, to successfully scale production of speciality fats and unlock flavour for the next generation of plant-based proteins.

“Fats are an essential element that give meat and dairy their unique taste and texture, however, many plant proteins are laden with overprocessed ingredients or plant oils that fail to deliver on taste,” said Dr. James Petrie, CEO, Nourish Ingredients. “Nourish Ingredients recreates the most potent, animalic fats sourced in nature without the animal, to unlock the flavour and experience consumers want and expect from plant-based products. Working with ScaleUp Bio will give us invaluable access to technical expertise and food-grade facilities, to help scale our fats. We look forward to deepening and expanding our partnership in the coming months,” added Dr. Petrie.

Global Food Tech Innovators Sign Letters of Intent

ScaleUp Bio is also announcing it has received an initial number of signed Letters of Intent (LOI) from a diverse array of food innovators, another positive material development demonstrating robust interest from the global food-tech industry. Signing of a LOI in ScaleUp Bio’s customer development process ensures these prospective customers can reserve blocks of ScaleUp Bio mission-critical laboratory or pilot-production facility use early on. They can already begin incorporating those reservations in their business planning, while overall negotiations towards mutually beneficial customer agreements are completed.

Initial LOIs have been received from:

• USA-based C16 Biosciences, which produces next-generation oils and fats to decarbonize the consumer products supply chain — starting with a sustainable alternative to palm oil and palm-derived ingredients
• Malaysia-based Ultimeat, which is creating plant-based meat alternatives that are just as juicy, flavourful and tender as actual meat
• Singapore-based Allium Bio, which uses a novel co-culture fermentation technology to create sustainable and functional ingredients from algae and mycelium

These and other new customer partners (to be announced) have embarked on a myriad of dynamic engagements to explore how they can leverage ScaleUp Bio’s offerings to customise their unique products for Asian novel food producers. The innovators recognize the specialized proposition provided by ScaleUp Bio, as future partnerships could potentially address the increasing demand for more sustainable, healthier and more affordable food products in the region.

Delivering Singapore’s first, state-of-the-art, dedicated food-grade precision fermentation facilities

ScaleUp Bio also announced today it is in the final, pre-operational phase to open Singapore’s first, dedicated food-grade submerged microbial and precision fermentation facilities. Its two facilities are designed to support two distinct ScaleUp growth areas: research and development, and pilot-stage manufacturing.

The first facility, the Fermentation Joint Lab, is a research and development lab enabling global food tech start-ups to explore ideas for new food innovations with state-of-the-art equipment dedicated for food-grade fermentation purposes. It offers facilities and equipment calibrated for the unique needs of the alternative food industry. This is an important distinction, given that previously, most food tech start-up companies had to contend with laboratory facilities and equipment not previously calibrated for the food industry. The new facility addresses the critical need for this, for Singapore and Asia, with dedicated, food-grade fermentation facilities from inception.

The Fermentation Joint Lab is a jointly developed and operated facility by ScaleUp Bio and A*STAR’s (Singapore Agency For Science, Technology and Research) Singapore Institute of Food and Biotechnology Innovation (SIFBI). It is in Nurasa’s Food Tech Innovation Centre (FTIC) - a centre for innovation with dedicated food-grade spaces and the communities designed to foster scientific and technical innovation, creativity, and collaboration within the food tech industry. Nurasa’s FTIC is located within Singapore’s Biopolis research district.

ScaleUp Bio’s second facility is a fully owned, dedicated, food-grade commercial production fermentation facility. It is a first for Singapore, and amongst only a few such globally – offering up to 10,000 litres fermentation capacity for pilot-stage manufacturing. Innovation hubs and technical specialists will be on hand to ensure quality control and safe production standards, coupled with a full suite of business advisory, Asia market entry and other related services. Also serving as ScaleUp Bio’s new headquarters, the facility is in the new, high-tech manufacturing and logistics district of Tuas, on the western side of Singapore island. Full operations are expected to commence in early 2024.

With today’s announcement of its initial customers and nearing completion of its state-of-the-art facilities, ScaleUp Bio joins a small but growing cadre of specialist B2B companies worldwide offering pure CDMO, end-to-end offerings to support innovation for the global food tech industry.

About ScaleUp Bio

ScaleUp Bio is a Singapore-based, pioneering company providing dedicated food-grade submerged microbial and precision fermentation facilities and comprehensive contract development and manufacturing organisation services for innovative start-up food tech companies from around the world. ScaleUp Bio is a joint-venture company of ADM, global leader in nutrition and agricultural origination and processing, and Nurasa, a company focused on accelerating the commercialisation and adoption of sustainable food across Asia and wholly owned by Temasek, a global investment management company in Singapore. Learn more about us today by visiting www.scaleupbio.com.

About Nourish Ingredients

Founded in 2019 by former CSIRO scientists, Nourish Ingredients was created to offer a better solution to animal fats. Backed by plant-based innovators Main Sequence Ventures and Horizons Ventures, Nourish Ingredients co-develops sustainable, animal-free fats suitable for any flavor profile. Using a patent-pending fermentation process, Nourish delivers a sustainable product without sacrificing taste to a growing market of alternative protein food brands. To learn more, visit https://w3.nourishingredients.io/.

About C16 Biosciences

C16 Biosciences uses innovative processes found in nature to brew sustainable alternatives to palm oil. C16 was founded with the objective of creating a sustainable, environmentally friendly alternative to conflict palm oil. By offering producers, refiners, traders and consumers of palm oil an opportunity to invest part of their production into bio-based oils and sustainability efforts, our aim is to reduce the environmental footprint of palm oil production and protect precious natural land, wildlife, and resources in the process. Learn more about c16 Biosciences at https://www.c16bio.com/.

About Ultimeat

At Ultimeat, we focus on creating plant-based meat that delivers texture, taste and nutrition for people to eat healthily while being kind to our Planet and Mother Nature. With our technology and innovation capabilities, our team is dedicated focus on innovation and product development to achieve plant-based meat breakthrough, as well as continuous improvement to existing products. Discover more about Ultimeat at https://ultimeat.com/.

About Allium Bio

At Allium Bio, we’re creating sustainable and functional ingredients to replace processed additives. We use a brand-new fermentation technology to grow our plant-based ingredients with better textures, flavours, and functional properties. Better ingredients, better products, and a cleaner ingredients label for everyone. Learn more about Allium Bio by visiting https://www.alliumbio.com/.