{"id":151592,"date":"2024-10-08T07:29:00","date_gmt":"2024-10-08T05:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=151592"},"modified":"2024-10-01T15:43:27","modified_gmt":"2024-10-01T13:43:27","slug":"aio-secures-e6-million-for-demo-plant-construction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/aio-secures-e6-million-for-demo-plant-construction\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00c4IO Secures \u20ac6 Million for Demo Plant Construction"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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\u00a9 \u00c4IO<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

The biotechnology startup \u00c4IO has raised \u20ac6.1 million through venture capital funds\u00a0Voima Ventures<\/a>,\u00a02C Ventures<\/a>,\u00a0SmartCap<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Nordic Foodtech VC<\/a>. The funds will be used to build a demo plant in Estonia to produce environmentally friendly oils and fats from wood and agricultural residues, offering an alternative to the widely used oils in the food industry.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Founded in 2022 as a spin-off from\u00a0TalTech\u00a0(Tallinn University of Technology), \u00c4IO has developed a unique method that enables the food industry to reduce its reliance on environmentally harmful animal fats, palm oil and other vegetable oils. \u00c4IO\u2019s solution uses specialised yeast to transform by-products from wood and agricultural processes, such as sugars extracted from sawdust, into food-grade fats and oils. This process is significantly faster and much less taxing on the environment.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u00c4IO founders 2024 \u2013 Nemailla Bonturi and Petri-Jaan Lahtvee in \u00c4IO pilot lab \u00a9 \u00c4IO<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Last year, \u00c4IO raised \u20ac1 million through venture capital, allowing the development of three alternative product categories: encapsulated oil, red oil and butter fats. These products can replace widely used palm oil in the food industry, and \u00c4IO\u2019s branded Red Oil can also be used in cosmetics and household products.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Nemailla Bonturi<\/strong>, co-founder of \u00c4IO, oils made from residues significantly reduce the environmental impact of agriculture and animal farming.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201c\u00c4IO\u2019s oils, produced from industrial residues, help reduce land use by up to 97% and water consumption by as much as 10 times compared to current palm oil and animal fat production. Additionally, the speed of oil and fat production through fermentation is 10 times faster,\u201d\u00a0said Bonturi.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n

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\u00c4IO products 2024 \u00a9 \u00c4IO<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Why invest in \u00c4IO<\/strong>\u00a0<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Investors see great future potential in \u00c4IO for two main reasons. Firstly, \u00c4IO addresses one of the biggest environmental challenges of our time related to oil production, and secondly, it fosters economic growth. Nordic Foodtech VC was one of the first investors to believe in \u00c4IO two years ago, when the company emerged from the TalTech lab, and encouraged others to join.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201c\u00c4IO\u2019s food industry testing has been successful, and feedback on the initial products has been encouraging. We are confident that with this funding, we will reach the next phase, and we welcome our new co-investors with joy,\u201d\u00a0said company partner Mika Kukkurainen<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Hendrik Reimand<\/strong>, partner at the venture capital fund 2C Ventures, believes that \u00c4IO can turn its scientific advancements into commercial success.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cProviding sustainable alternatives to products such as palm oil or animal fats is a critically important step in reducing the environmental impact of the food and cosmetics industry and we are confident in the teams\u2019 ability to turn this scientific development into commercial success.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Voima Ventures partner Pontus Str\u00e5hlman<\/strong> emphasizes that the biotech startup provides a solution to the palm oil industry problem, which destroys diverse forests, such as those in Indonesia.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201c\u00c4IO\u2019s approach addresses this issue by valorizing agricultural and forestry sidestreams into premium replacements, meaning significant reductions in CO2<\/sub> or land use.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n

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\u00c4IO founders 2024 \u2013 Professor Petri-Jaan Lahtvee and Nemailla Bonturi \u00a9 \u00c4IO<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

According to Sille Pettai,<\/strong> Fund manager at SmartCap\u202fGreen\u202fFund, funded\u202fby the European Union NextGenerationEU, investing in \u00c4IO offers the opportunity to support groundbreaking technologies.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cBy backing \u00c4IO, we not only address waste reduction but also provide eco-friendly alternatives for various industries to reduce dependence on traditional raw materials.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

With the investments, \u00c4IO plans to build a demo plant in Estonia, where they will start producing encapsulated oil, red oil and butter fats in tens of tons. The plant is expected to be completed by 2026. Although the final location has not yet been determined, the demo plant is likely to be located near a major industrial company. Raw materials will be sourced through collaboration with various Estonian and Finnish food industry companies, whose by-products will be used to produce oils. \u00c4IO is also working with the Estonian company Fibenol, whose hydrolysates are planned to be valorized. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is strong interest in \u00c4IO\u2019s alternative oils from industrial companies. Several major food, cosmetics and household products companies in Estonia and worldwide have already signed on to develop innovative products together. \u00c4IO now has over 120 partners from Estonia and abroad, who either provide them with industrial residues or test \u00c4IO\u2019s oils and fats. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cFor a scientist, the greatest achievement is when years of research result in a real product that can change the entire food industry and consumer experience. We will continue to develop the company and its products in collaboration with partners, investors and the food industry. We will also continue working with TalTech to train the next generation of bioengineers,\u201d\u00a0Nemailla Bonturi<\/strong> explained regarding the next steps.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The entire production process is based on research conducted in Estonia, converting industrial by-products into food through a fermentation process similar to brewing beer or raising bread with yeast. The fermentation process results in fats rich in healthy fatty acids and antioxidants. Fermentation uses the \u201cred yeast\u201d microbe created and patented by Bonturi, which transforms agricultural and other industrial by-products into delicious and appetizing fats and oils. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to securing investments, \u00c4IO also received a \u20ac1.8 million grant from the Estonian Business and Innovation Agency (EISA) last year to create a platform necessary for developing semi-automated strain technology, in collaboration with the Center of Food and Fermentation Technologies (TFTAK). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Latest Achievements <\/strong> <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

This year, \u00c4IO was also selected for the European Joint Undertaking on Circular Bioeconomy (CBE-JU) project with a budget of \u20ac7.5 million. Together with other European companies and research institutions, \u00c4IO will develop fat-based materials and cosmetic products.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the beginning of this year, \u00c4IO established a separate innovation center called \u201cGood Fat W\u00f6rks\u201d for the development of alternative fats, where the company is developing new fats through fermentation and producing pilot products. In May of this year, the public could already sample delicacies made with \u00c4IO\u2019s pilot products, prepared by top chefs, at one of the world\u2019s first public novel food testing events held in Tallinn at the Latitude59 startup festival, in collaboration with Gelatex and Accelerate Estonia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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About \u00c4IO\u00a0<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

\u00c4IO Tech O\u00dc was founded in 2022 by TalTech bioengineers Petri-Jaan Lahtvee (phD) and Nemailla Bonturi (phD). Today, \u00c4IO\u2019s international team, with experience in bioprocessing, synthetic biology, and food technology, consists of 16 people from Estonia, Brazil, Poland, Armenia and Italy. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The biotechnology startup \u00c4IO has raised \u20ac6.1 million through venture capital funds\u00a0Voima Ventures,\u00a02C Ventures,\u00a0SmartCap\u00a0and\u00a0Nordic Foodtech VC. The funds will be used to build a demo plant in Estonia to produce environmentally friendly oils and fats from wood and agricultural residues, offering an alternative to the widely used oils in the food industry.\u00a0 Founded in 2022 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":151638,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","nova_meta_subtitle":"Biotech startup to produce environmentally friendly oils and fats from wood and agricultural residues - a solution offering an alternative to the widely used oils in the food industry","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[5838,13462,5796,12228,16171,12615,21187,13821],"supplier":[24904,24901,24903,19472,5585,21057,16317,24553,17720,24902,16049,17719],"class_list":["post-151592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-bioeconomy","tag-biooil","tag-biotechnology","tag-cosmetics","tag-fermentation","tag-microbes","tag-residues","tag-yeast","supplier-accelerate-estonia","supplier-aio","supplier-center-of-food-and-fermentation-technologies-tftak","supplier-circular-bio-based-europe-joint-undertaking-cbe-ju","supplier-european-union","supplier-fibenol","supplier-gelatex-technologies","supplier-nextgenerationeu","supplier-nordic-foodtech-vc","supplier-smartcap-green-fund","supplier-tallinn-university-of-technology","supplier-voima-ventures"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151592\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151592"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=151592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}