February 28, 2023

By Lynda Kiernan-Stone, Global AgInvesting Media

The cross-industry need for bioreactor capacity is massive, and not being met. When examining just one engaged industry – the production of cultivated edible protein – Future Fields explained that 10 billion liters of bioreactor capacity will be needed by 2030, when currently there exists only 51 million liters – representing a gap of 163x in supply needed to be met in seven years. Furthermore, the production of recombinant proteins accounts for 50-85 percent of the total cost of making cultivated meat. 

And that’s just one industry. The startup outlined how the raw materials, or recombinant protein, needed from everything from medical R&D, to pharmaceuticals, to food are created in bioreactors. Today, more than 50 percent of new drugs are produced using biomanufacturing, and with such pressure to close the supply gap, there has been a critical need to lower both the costs and carbon footprint of bioreactors themselves. 

But Alberta-based tech startup Future Fields took a different approach by creating EntoEngine™ – a platform that supercharges fruit flies with synthetic biology and then scales it through insect farming to create active, sustainable, and cost-effective biomolecules. 

“We’ve passed a tipping point where it’s scaling, not creating, biotech-based products that is the fundamental hurdle for founders, companies and entire industries,” said Matt Anderson-Baron, co-founder and CEO, Future Fields. 

To continue this momentum, the company announced it has closed on $11.2 million in Seed funding from a range of leading VCs and investors including Bee Partners, which increased their equity stake in the company. Toyota Ventures also participated in the round along with Builders VC, AgFunder, Amplify Capital, Milad Alucozai of BoxOne Ventures, Green Circle Foodtech, Siddhi Capital, and Climate Capital.

“Our approach is 30X faster than tanks and more or less infinitely scalable with minimal investment; this is how we’ve already commercialized our first few products,” said Anderson-Baron. “As we unlock more proteins, we can scale production capacity while continuing to service over 60 companies in cellular agriculture and beyond.”

The company explained the various advantages of using flies instead of steel tanks as bioreactors, not least of which is the ability to own its supply chain, increase supply with a minimal investment, and lower energy requirements for production, while achieving greater quality control over the final product. 

Concurrent to announcing its successful fundraising, Future Fields also shared the launch of its first products beyond cultured meat, broadening the company’s focus to include the multi-billion dollar industries of cell therapies, research, and biopharmaceuticals. 

These include a clinically proven protein for wound healing and bone grafting; a key hormone impacting fertility treatments and transplantation; a hormone that spurs muscle development and maintenance; a hormone responsible for the development of breast milk; and a key component of stem cell research. 

“Biotechnology is bubbling with innovation, but to date, little funding has gone to biomanufacturing production infrastructure at scale,” said Jim Adler, founder and general partner, Toyota Ventures.

“Traditional bioreactors are expensive, wasteful, and capacity-limited. It is time for disruptive innovation. We applaud Future Fields’ cost-effective, sustainable, and scalable biomanufacturing platform to fuel biotechnology’s next life-saving inventions.”

These funds will enable the company to expand its team and to construct a world-first production facility with the ability to produce recombinant proteins at kilogram scale – in a facility that is only 10,000 square-feet, will be adjacent to the startup’s headquarters in Edmonton, Canada, and that will have a smaller carbon footprint than existing bioreactor technology. 

~ Lynda Kiernan-Stone is editor in chief with GAI Media, and is managing editor and daily contributor for Global AgInvesting’s AgInvesting Weekly News and  Agtech Intel News, as well as HighQuest Group’s Unconventional Ag. She can be reached at lkiernan-stone@globalaginvesting.com.

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