Amersfoort, The Netherlands-based Nutreco has purchased a minority stake in BiomEdit, a microbiome biotech company.
The purchase comes just over a month after Nutreco and BiomEdit entered a research and commercial partnership on feed additives, announced on 12 January, 2023. The partnership combines BiomEdit’s “bioinformatics platform” with Nutreco’s feed, using the research BiomEdit has performed on the gut microbiomes of an array of animals.
“Through this investment, we are reinforcing the unique collaboration that brings together BiomEdit’s state-of-the-art microbiome discovery platform and Nutreco’s customer access and distribution capabilities,” Nutreco CEO Fulco van Lede said in a release. “We’re excited about its potential to help us super-charge our supply of proprietary ultra-specialty ingredients, speed up progress on our purpose of Feeding the Future and create a more sustainable future for our industry.”
That collaboration, BiomEdit CEO Aaron Schacht said when it was first announced, will help both companies launch new products addressing animal health.
“By leveraging BiomEdit’s advanced microbiome discovery platform and bench of deep experts together with Nutreco’s expertise and commercial deployment capabilities, we will launch novel feed additive products that address some of the most-important problems in animal health, sustainability, and food security,” Schacht said soon after the collaboration was announced. “This broad strategic alliance with Nutreco is unique in our industry and plays to the strengths of both companies. Together, we will drive innovation and raise customer expectations for the impact of novel feed additives in livestock production systems.”
Headquartered in Fishers, Indiana, U.S.A., BiomEdit is researching the microbiomes of farmed animals to create probiotics, microbiome derived bioactives, and engineered microbial medicines that can help address animal health needs. The company has developed “microbial atlases” through researching animal microbiomes to create probiotics that “perform a specific function more efficiently and effectively than thousands of other strains,” the company said.
Nutreco said it took the minority stake in BiomEdit through the company’s recent Series A financing round, initially raised in April 2022. Anterra Capital, Viking Global Investors, and Ferment are also investors in BiomEdit.
The new investment by Nutreco, Schacht said, serves as an endorsement of the commercial partnership.
“Nutreco's investment in BiomEdit underscores our strategic partnership and a shared mission to create novel animal health solutions through the untapped potential of the microbiome,” Schacht said. “We are pleased that Nutreco, a global leader in animal nutrition and aquafeed, is joining our roster of world-class Series A investors to help fuel innovation in feed additive products."
