Aerbio has officially launched, ushering in a new era of sustainable biotechnology. The newly formed company comes as part of a buyout of UK-headquartered Deep Branch Biotechnology Ltd, with the core management team of Kaspar Kristiansen (CEO), Rob Mansfield (CTO) and Peter Rowe (CXO), and chairperson Lars Topholm retained to forge a new path for the business.
Aerbio CEO, Kaspar Kristiansen stated that “at Aerbio, we don’t just follow the rules for fermentation—we rewrite them. With the acquisition of Deep Branch’s groundbreaking (R)evolve™ platform, we’re able to harness technology to convert simple molecules into sustainable, high-value products and use it at the center of a new, bolder direction built in close collaboration with our shareholders and management team.”
The company’s primary focus for their technology which uses carbon dioxide and hydrogen in the same way most fermentation processes use sugar is to scale the production of Proton™, a protein-rich ingredient for food and animal nutrition.
Describing the company’s commercialization strategy, Aerbio CXO Peter Rowe explained that “bringing Proton to market is our primary focus. It’s clear there is a pressing need for scalable, nutritious and sustainable protein sources for a range of applications, most notably human and animal nutrition. We already have promising results in the lab that show we can produce a range of other valuable products, and once we have built out the full scale-up pipeline to bring Proton to market, we’ll then begin to push through new products. My personal focus is to continue to build the relationships and partnerships required across our value chain to allow us to have the biggest and fastest positive impact on the security and sustainability of our global food system.”
In addition to Deep Branch’s IP portfolio, Aerbio has acquired piloting facilities at the Brightlands Chemelot Campus in Limburg, the Netherlands. This facility is intimately understood by Rob Mansfield, who joins Aerbio as CTO after serving as founding CTO for Deep Branch, who commented that “scaling an aerobic gas fermentation process brings several key challenges that must be overcome, mainly at the intersection of process efficiency and process safety. At Aerbio, we’re building upon strong foundations laid by Deep Branch in overcoming these challenges, and in addition, will benefit hugely from being joined by a strong core of Deep Branch’s technical team.”
“In my day job as an investment banker, I cover the top listed companies in the Nordics, including several biosolutions companies. Having worked closely with the entire Aerbio management team for several years, I see many of the same skills, expertise and chemistry that I see in the best-listed companies. We have acquired technology and know-how that has the potential to not just revolutionize our food system, but also to enable a rapid trajectory towards becoming industry-leading,” said chairperson Lars Topholm.
