Shanghai-based biotech company Changing Bio was founded in 2020 to unlock the nutritional potential of limited resources efficiently. The company has completed three rounds of financing within a year, with investors including Bits x Bites, Eight Roads, Hillhouse Capital, Sherpa Healthcare Partners, Elite Capital, and Jinqiu Fund.
Changing Bio has established two research and development (R&D) centers in Shanghai and Qingdao and a 9,000-square-meter bright biomanufacturing facility. The company’s team of 100 employees includes over 40 interdisciplinary scientists and experienced engineers specializing in molecular biology, microbiology, synthetic biology, fermentation engineering, and food science.
The company’s proprietary mycoprotein, produced through biomass fermentation, has been approved by the China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) as a food ingredient. Changing Bio has completed multiple industrial-scale production batches of mycoprotein powder, showcasing its versatility in dairy products, meat products, snacks, confectioneries, and chocolates. With two bioreactors capable of producing 2,000 tons of mycoprotein annually, the company can supply 10,000-20,000 tons of food products.
Aiming to meet the protein needs of 10-20 million people, Changing Bio plans to build 2,000 bioreactors covering an area of 1.2 square kilometers, producing the same amount of proteins as 26,666 square kilometers of soybean fields. In addition, the company is set to hold an official product launch event at Beyond Expo Macao in May 2023, partnering with global food brands to deliver healthier, more nutritious, tastier, and lower-carbon food products to the market.
Furthermore, Changing Bio has successfully developed a variety of dairy proteins from different animal species using multiple biological chassis, modular endogenous gene element libraries, and gene editing and precision fermentation technology. As a result, the company intends to bring cost-competitive, sustainable, and resilient biosynthetic dairy proteins to the market.
Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash
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