nir-vana innovation network

The French company is a European leader in bioprocesses, industrial biotechnology, bio-synthesis and synthetic biology.

Medium and large players within the process industries - including chemicals, pharmaceuticals, agro-food, feed, fragrances, flavors and cosmetics - have to source and produce their ingredients and chemicals. The French company enables them to do so in a cost effective and sustainable way by harnessing the combined power of natural microbial biodiversity and advanced genetic engineering.

Thank to its integrated bioinformatics, robotics, genetics, fermentation technologies, advanced analytics platforms, and their proprietary software, the French company can design, build and improve bioprocesses able to convert sustainable low cost feedstocks (such as sugars, agri-residues, renewable biomass) into high value chemicals and ingredients, using high efficiency microbial strains fermentation.

The partners will submit a short list of molecules, ingredients and chemicals they would like to produce via bio-based technologies. After a first study, the French company will let them know if it is possible to produce such molecules at scale, cost effectively and in a fully renewable and secured way.

Technical and/or research cooperations will include the following stages:

1) the mapping of the most relevant metabolic pathways needed to reach the target compounds

2) the setting up of a joint business case, including long and short term revenues, as well as costs and investments

3) the development of preliminary microbial performance tests to assess what microbial strain is most suitable for the target molecules

4) iterative campaigns of genetic engineering and bioprocess improvement till the process reaches a sufficient scale and robustness.

The interdisciplinary team of biotechnology, informatics, intellectual property and business experts will review the business case at hand together with the partner's experts and will chart the best path forward for a more sustainable and solid business.

Advantages & innovations

The French company enables its partner to increase the sustainability of its products, sourcing robustness, cost effectiveness and the bio-based content. Their patent experts can help the partner in the development of its product portfolio to expand its pipeline and renew its value proposition with new functionalities and increased competitiveness.

Stage of development

Available for demonstration

Partner sought

The French company is looking for partners that are medium or large companies involved in the processing industry. They could deal with chemicals, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, food and feed ingredients as well as plant health. Different TRL (technology readiness level) stages are considered in order to develop and commercialize a number of high potential molecules from their own pipeline and/or to help them to develop their own target molecules. Ideally the partner sought would have an excellent path to market for its own products, and would seek to expand their ingredients/product offering by diversifying its production and/or replacing some of its offers with bio-based alternatives. Strong market-specific expertise, including B2B or B2C where relevant is an asset. Within the partnership the French company seeks to focus on being the technology enabler for the expansion of the counter part market penetration and added value. With a technical or research cooperation agreement, the French company will take care of the microbial, bioprocess, yield improvement stages. The partners, as market leaders, will be in charge of the market penetration aspects.