Synthetic biology offers extraordinary opportunities to secure food production and curb greenhouse gas emissions. Its impact on agriculture and food is estimated to reach between $0.8 to 1.2 trillion over the next 10 to 20 years.
For this future to materialize, it will take a combination of talent that can deliver breakthrough innovations across strain and enzyme engineering, extraction, and fermentation, while bringing commercial excellence to build enduring businesses. That’s why we are so excited to have invested in the Series A round in Chinese synbio company Cataya.
Cataya is a synbio startup formed by seasoned veterans. Leading the effort is CEO Dr. Lishan Zhao, former Vice President of R&D and president of China at US synbio pioneer Amyris. There he led the development of products like artemisinin, farnesene and vitamin E from R&D through commercialization with key partners in China. The balance of the team comprises heads of fermentation and strain engineering from biotech firms Meihua Group and Evonik China.
With the completion of this $16M Series A, Cataya will expand the team to accelerate R&D and product development in personal care and human nutrition. In addition to Bits x Bites, other investors of the round include Source Code Capital and Sherpa Healthcare Partners.
Joseph Zhou, managing partner of Bits x Bites, says: “Very few companies have Cataya’s caliber of experience forming their backbone. We couldn’t be happier to be an early partner of the company and help it build on this solid foundation to become a synbio powerhouse.”
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